De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), the central bank of the Netherlands, is reported to be open for the CBDC of the ECB. CBDC stands for central bank digital currency. This was officially backed by a 45-page report released on April 21st. With that being said, DNB is ready to play one of the key roles in adopting digital currencies by the global banking system.
In particular, the central bank is willing to participate in the ECB's CBDC emission. it is expected that the digital Euro will make international payments faster and cheaper for all of the EU members. The Netherlands want to become a testing ground for this process.
It's also interesting to note that the report mentions Facebook Libra as a potential threat for the stability of the money-and-credit policy, which is why more and more central banks around the globe are now considering the possibility of emitting their own digital currencies.
No More Cash?
According to the report, this step is made to reduce the amount of cash circulating in the Netherlands. Almost 2/3 of the financial transactions in the country are digital. And the tendency is going to move in that direction since paper money is considered as a means of spreading viruses due to the physical contact required to pass the money around. Many shops in the Netherlands ask their customers to avoid paying in cash and use wireless payments instead.
CBDCs in 2020?
Chances are, the People's Bank of China is going to launch their own CDBC this year. In the report released on April 4th, the central bank says they will continue this process, and the new yuan will become one of the key priorities. A couple of days ago, we found a few screenshots of the test app for the digital yuan.
On top of that South Korea and Sweden have launched their test programs aimed at estimating the process of launching their own CBDC. Moreover, France has recently started their experiments with the digital euro. In his turn, the ECB President welcomes all of the efforts taken by the central banks of EU members in the field of plating around with CDBCs.
