Bank of Canada: We Don’t Need a Digital Dollar Now

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Canadian central bank Bank of Canada sees no real reason to issue a central bank digital currency (CBDC) at the moment.

According to Reuters, the deputy governor of the regulator, Timothy Lane, has said while speaking about CBDC issues on a panel held yesterday that the bank has not found any solid case that would justify the issuance of a digital dollar at the moment. He said:

“In terms of where we are with the project, we don’t currently see a strong case for issuing it, but the world is progressing very rapidly and probably even more so in the wake of the pandemic.”

Apart for concluding there is not a real need to issue a digital currency, the bank has previously mentioned some of the risks associated to this type of asset.

In a report released in October last year, the regulator talked about the threats associated to CBDCs in relation to their storage. In addition, the bank pointed to a potential competition between cryptocurrency exchanges and banks when attracting users.