BIS Publishes Findings from CBDC-Focused Survey on Central Banks

The Bank of International Settlements (BIS) recently released a report titled “Gaining momentum — Results of the 2021 BIS survey on central bank digital currencies,” which highlighted its findings in a CBDC study. The report was written by senior BIS economist Anneke Kosse and market analyst Ilaria Mattei.

Conducted in late 2021, the survey, which collected information from 81 central banks across the globe detailed:

“Nine out of 10 central banks are exploring central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), and more than half are now developing them or running concrete experiments. In particular, work on retail CBDCs has moved to more advanced stages.”

Kosse and Mattei explained that the Covid-19 pandemic and “the emergence of stablecoins and other cryptocurrencies have accelerated the work on CBDCs.” The authors added that this narrative was more attuned to “advanced economies, where central banks say that financial stability has increased in importance as a motivation for their CBDC involvement.”

BIS Report Shows 6 Out of 10 Central Banks Accelerated Their CDBC Efforts

Detailing that “the year 2021 was characterized by the strong growth of the crypto assets and stablecoin market,” the report revealed that, “On average, almost six out of 10 respondent central banks said that this growth has accelerated their work on CBDCs.” They also noted:

“This has also spurred collaboration between central banks to monitor the implications of crypto assets and stablecoins and to coordinate regulatory approaches to contain their risks to the financial system.”

Finally, most central banks involved in the survey detailed that they had plans to develop “wholesale” CBDCs to fine-tune cross-border payment mechanisms, while almost 70% of the respondents noted that they could issue a retail CBDC “in either the short or medium term.”