Maybe CBDCs are less inevitable than some people think.
Australia, Canada, and Colombia are pumping the breaks on plans to launch central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). But the opposition isn’t just coming from citizens on the ground. Rather, this time, it is the central banks that are voicing concerns. Other central banks should take notice and follow suit.
“There is no clear public interest case to issue retail CBDC in Australia yet,” said the Reserve Bank of Australia in a recent report. Similarly, the Banco de la República de Colombia published a report that said, “[T]here are not sufficient reasons for the issuance of [a CBDC] (retail or wholesale) in Colombia.” For its part, the Bank of Canada said it is “scaling down its work on a retail central bank digital currency and shifting its focus to broader payments system research and policy development.”
The central banks described a few reasons for pumping the breaks. First, most officials seem to recognize that people are generally well-served by the existing options in the private sector. Sure, there are problems, but mobile banking, payment apps, cryptocurrency, and the like have offered people an ever-growing suite of options to choose from.
