It is becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with all of the announcements from a raft of central banks and think tanks but here are some that caught my attention.
The minutes of the December meeting of the Bank of England’s CBDC Academic Advisory Group were released. Key areas of discussion included:
A proposal that the Bank consider fully integrating pull payments into any future digital pound system given its potential to improve overall economic welfare by increasing the number of welfare enhancing transactions
The belief that many central banks are waiting for a ‘second mover advantage’, as being the first to implement a CBDC could potentially pose higher risks
The roundtable discussed the following areas:
how the introduction of a digital pound may impact innovation within the wider payment landscape
the most effective way to design a digital pound platform in order to incentivise innovation and encourage a range of different wallet providers
In the UK, the primary motivation for a digital pound is focussed more on safe innovation in payments rather than financial inclusion
that while network effects are important, there is a need to drive demand by building the infrastructure, which in turn incentivises innovation
The Bank of England issued a summary of work over the past year on a digital pound, including how it relates to the evolving payments landscape.
To promote its work on the digital pound, the Bank is publishing design notes, which set out its emerging thinking on specific topics. It published a blueprint in January 2025 which focused on four key areas:
Product vision and strategy: An articulation of the digital pound proposition, including how a digital pound could meet our policy goals, and the utility a digital pound could provide to users, merchants and ecosystem participants.
Scheme and regulation: The terms and standards for the use and operation of a digital pound, including definition of the roles and responsibilities of both the private and public sector, and matters related to the commercial model for the digital pound.
Technology: The conceptual and logical design of the technology platform for the core digital pound infrastructure, and the solutions and technologies that PIPs and ESIPs might need to interact with it across the digital pound ecosystem.
Operations: The different roles, functions, and levels of service required for a continuously available, secure and resilient digital pound infrastructure.
It has developed three long term aspirations that frame its product vision:
Central bank money as a publicly provided good
An end-user proposition for retail payments
Enabling an open, dynamic and innovative payments ecosystem
President Trump issued an executive order banning CBDCs, and revoked prior restrictive regulations in order to promote responsible innovation and financial freedom in the United States
An ECB survey of 19,000 respondents across 11 euro-area countries revealed significant consumer reluctance toward adopting a digital euro, with Europeans seeing little value in the CBDC. It found that:
that while it could be introduced with minimal disruption to financial stability, its adoption faces significant hurdles due to consumer habits
it was important to target communications to address persistent consumer reluctance toward a digital euro
According to a survey by OMFIF, fewer than one in five central banks are inclined to issue a CBDC, compared to 38% in 2022. Reasons for the delays include:
concerns with regulatory and governance frameworks
unforeseen “economic challenges taking priority over CBDC work”
“Establishing legislation is also partially dependent on political will, rather than the central bank’s technical capacity or decision on policy,”
The Bank of Korea is launching a pilot involving 100,000 participants trialling the use of a retail CBDC starting in April.
Naresh Aggarwal
18 March 2025
