The Bank of Canada is ‘scaling down’ plans for a possible digital loonie

The Bank of Canada doesn’t spot a “compelling case” to determination guardant with plans for a cardinal slope integer currency (CBDC) aft years of study, politician Tiff Macklem said Tuesday.

As portion of the Bank of Canada’s mandate to oversee outgo and currency frameworks for the country, the cardinal slope since 2020 has been studying what a integer mentation of the loonie whitethorn look similar arsenic cryptocurrencies similar Bitcoin garnered much mainstream attention.

Any imaginable determination to instrumentality a digital loonie of immoderate benignant would beryllium successful the hands of Parliament, not the Bank of Canada.

Governor Tiff Macklem, speaking to the Institute of International Finance and the Canadian Bankers Association connected Tuesday, said the cardinal slope has built up “an extended assemblage of knowledge” astir what it would instrumentality to instrumentality a cardinal slope integer currency successful Canada.

But, for now, the Bank of Canada is shifting distant from preparations for specified a plan.

“Recognizing that determination is not presently a compelling lawsuit to determination guardant with a CBDC successful Canada, the Bank is scaling down its enactment connected a retail cardinal slope integer currency and shifting its absorption to broader payments strategy probe and argumentation development,” Macklem said.

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He added that the Bank of Canada volition proceed to “monitor” planetary cardinal slope integer currency developments and reiterated that it “will beryllium acceptable to guarantee Canadians ever person a harmless and unafraid proviso of nationalist money.”

Briefing notes acquired by the Canadian Press from January 2021 revealed officials warned Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland that the issuance of a cardinal slope integer currency would entail “wide-reaching implications for the economy, the fiscal system” and the Bank of Canada’s operations.

The Bank of Canada’s public consultations connected a imaginable integer loonie from past twelvemonth showed the vast bulk of Canadians who responded to the survey were opposed to the implementation of a cardinal slope integer currency.

— with files from the Canadian Press