The Bank of Canada is joining a group of leading central banks to examine the prospect of using digital money.
The group — which includes the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank (ECB), the Sveriges Riksbank, the Swiss National Bank, and Canada’s central bank — announced that they’ve created a group to assess the potential for central bank digital currencies (CBDC).
“The group will assess CBDC use cases; economic, functional and technical design choices, including cross-border interoperability; and the sharing of knowledge on emerging technologies,” the BoC said in a release.
Last week, a U.S. initiative was launched to also explore the creation of a CBDC.
That effort, known as the Digital Dollar Project, is being led by former head of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Chris Giancarlo, and involves a partnership with professional services firm Accenture.
The new group of central banks that will explore CBDCs also includes the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). Further, it intends to coordinate its efforts with global policy groups such as the Financial Stability Board (FSB) and the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI).
The joint project is to be co-chaired by Jon Cunliffe, who is deputy governor of the Bank of England and chair of the CPMI, along with Benoît Cœuré, head of the BIS Innovation Hub.