Central bank digital currencies (CBDC) have the potential to mitigate the long-standing challenges in payments, including high costs, low speed, limited access and insufficient transparency. As the future of payments could be transformed, there is an opportunity to ensure that there is global coordination in the creation of CBDCs. By understanding various jurisdictional priorities and identifying areas of alignment, a set of principles can be identified that serve as a foundation for the creation of interoperable CBDC design.
This piece builds off the World Economic Forum’s Central Bank Digital Currency Policy-Maker Toolkit, the Digital Currency Governance Consortium (DCGC) white paper series and research from existing and new efforts in this space by international and inter-governmental organizations, many of which involve DCGC
member organizations. This paper is informed by the CBDC Regional Roundtable series, workshops, interviews and panels, including World Economic Forum meetings at The Davos Agenda 2022 and 2023 and the Global Technology Governance Retreat. Above all, the paper attempts to provide a neutral, objective and analytical perspective on CBDC interoperability.
This white paper will address the following:
- Define the concept of interoperability and CBDC.
- Identify the areas of alignment for CBDC priorities across regions.
- Analyse the priorities for CBDC across regions including Latin America and the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East and North Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe and North America.
- Summarize lessons learned from CBDC exploration across the world thus far.
- Acknowledge considerations for CBDC in any jurisdiction, including monetary sovereignty, financial stability, geopolitical risk, de-dollarization and infrastructure cost considerations that need to be reflected on prior to any future CBDC issuance.
- Set out principles for interoperable CBDC that take into account the previously outlined
jurisdictional priorities and areas of alignment. - These principles are organized in the categories of governance, legal and regulatory, identification and authentication, different forms of payment and technical considerations.
- Offer recommendations to central bankers, policy-makers, the private sector and financial market infrastructure players.
- Conclude with a look towards supporting a set of standards based on these principles.
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