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Central Bank Digital Currencies: A Framework for Assessing Why and How

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Listed:
  • Ben Fung
  • Hanna Halaburda

Abstract

Digital currencies have attracted strong interest in recent years and have the potential to become widely adopted for use in making payments. Public authorities and central banks around the world are closely monitoring developments in digital currencies and studying their implications for the economy, the financial system and central banks. One key policy question for public authorities such as a central bank is whether or not to issue its own digital currency that can be used by the general public to make payments. There are several public policy arguments for a central-bank-issued digital currency. This paper proposes a framework for assessing why a central bank should consider issuing a digital currency and how to implement it to improve the efficiency of the retail payment system.

Suggested Citation

  • Ben Fung & Hanna Halaburda, 2016. "Central Bank Digital Currencies: A Framework for Assessing Why and How," Discussion Papers 16-22, Bank of Canada.
    • Handle: RePEc:bca:bocadp:16-22
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Digital Currencies; Financial services; Payment clearing and settlement systems;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E41 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Demand for Money
    • E42 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Monetary Sytsems; Standards; Regimes; Government and the Monetary System

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