“If the ECB, the Fed and the other central banks want to continue to fulfill their role vis-à-vis society, which is to ensure financial stability and to ensure that monetary policy can be adjusted, broadcast throughout the economy, they must adapt their intervention methods to the new digital situation," said Coeuré.
The Bank of England’s statement said the group will explore “CBDC use cases; economic, functional and technical design choices, including cross-border interoperability; and the sharing of knowledge on emerging technologies.”
Banque de France Governor François Villeroy de Galhau is planning to test a central bank-issued digital currency by 2020 to do it. Along the way, he’s making a play for French leadership of the European economy.
The biggest obstacle to a European Central Bank-issued digital currency is not the technology, according to departing European Central Bank President Mario Draghi. Rather, he said, the “key issue is … its utility in terms of costs and benefits to the public.”
