How is it different from what we currently have, assuming that digital pounds/dollars/whatevers are convertible with existing currency? Is existing currency not issued digitally?
When central banks issue cash now are they literally sending billions of dollars to the mint, trucking it off to a bank, and then the bank records it on a digital ledger? Seems wasteful.
It is, but it's restricted. M0 is central bank money [1]. Currently, only financial institutions have it. If the public could open accounts at the BoE, they too could own M0.
CBDCs are a way to give the public M0 without putting the central bank into the retail banking business. That gives central banks powerful new levers. For example, cash limits how negative rates can go. If cash were to become scarce and most money were held as M0, the central bank could enforce negative interest rates by clawing back M0.
Negative rates are feasible today. But were they to go sharply negative, they'd hit bank capital. Having the public directly hold M0 removes that side effect.
> For example, cash limits how negative rates can go.
No, it doesn’t. Cash with depreciation or expiration (both preannounced and ad hoc) has been used before. Politics, not technology, limits the use of that tool, and CBDC doesn’t meaningfully change the politics.
> Cash with depreciation or expiration (both preannounced and ad hoc) has been used before
Yes, if you changed the cash we're talking about, pounds sterling, it would be different.
> CBDC doesn’t meaningfully change the politics
Remember a few years ago, when IT would talk about getting long-needed projects greenly because they slapped "blockchain" on the proposal?Expiring cash is toxic. CBDC is not. Branding matters.
> Why is cash withdrawals from circulation be important to CBDC?
>> For example, cash limits how negative rates can go. If cash were to become scarce and most money were held as M0, the central bank could enforce negative interest rates by clawing back M0.
This would only really be effective if CBDC became prevalent enough to actually make a dent in money supply. What proportion of money would have to be CBDC for this to actually have an impact, and would we get there by just pure issuance of CBDC or by taking cash out of circulation and replacing it with CBDC?
> Btw I don't think OP argued citizens wouldn't need an account.
>> CBDCs are a way to give the public M0 without putting the central bank into the retail banking business.
I don't know how you would avoid retail banking unless you were to issue it via a means other than an account.
>I don't know how you would avoid retail banking unless you were to issue it via a means other than an account.
There's a lot more that goes into retail banking than just having an account. Of course citizens would need an account, how else will they be tracked :) I think the OP meant that the central bank could give customers an account for the sole purpose of holding their digital "crypto" coins and sending/receiving money with it....without having to do provide all the other services that go with retail banking like loans, credit cards etc.
The Chinese government explicitly states the new e-RMB will help them prevent money laundering, tax evasion, and "terrorism financing." The better question is, why is the current system insufficient for addressing these problems?
Hm. I meant to reply to the parent, not you, so that's my bad; but I probably fat-fingered it.
If they are in control of digital currency then they have a ledger of transactions, maybe? and if you have a 1:1 record of every single ledger then it's a bit harder to obfuscate?
Banks & businesses keep ledgers like these, but you have to 1. get your hands on it and 2. in case of multiple sets of books, you need to find the correct one. And then you have to connect all the dots.
Chinese capital and lending controls are very strict but this hasn't stopped Chinese and others to try and move money out of China. China has had repeated issues with things happening beyond regulators' reach until they become too big to hide and then have to be unwound, like excessive use of shadow banks for lending.
When central banks issue cash now are they literally sending billions of dollars to the mint, trucking it off to a bank, and then the bank records it on a digital ledger? Seems wasteful.