China not among major central banks in talks on global digital currency principles
- Despite China being a world leader in testing its own digital sovereign currency, the People’s Bank of China was conspicuously absent from international group discussion
- Nascent digital yuan has not been officially rolled out, but it continues to be tested in ongoing pilot programmes across China
China was not included in recent talks among central bankers from developed nations on potential collaboration involving central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) that are technologically complementary and can coexist within a wider international payments ecosystem.
A working group was formed by the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank, Sweden’s Riksbank, the Swiss National Bank and the US Federal Reserve, along with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), all of which are said to share a common motivation – avoiding unintended barriers for transferring sovereign currencies in their electronic forms.
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) was conspicuously absent from the international group, despite China being a world leader in testing its own digital sovereign currency. China is a member of the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures at the BIS, an international forum for central banks.
“It seemed a sensible group to put together because we have a common platform of like thinking. We face similar environments, we have similar financial-sector structures, and a number of us have been working together,” Jon Cunliffe, deputy governor of the Bank of England, said during an online press conference on Thursday.
“A central bank digital currency could be an important tool for central banks to help them meet their public policy objectives,” he added.