Central Bank Digital Currency

Q. Why is this in News?

A. According to recent reports, the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) digital rupee — the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) — may be introduced in phases beginning with wholesale businesses in the current financial year.

• RBI had proposed amendments to the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, which would enable it to launch a CBDC.

Q. What is Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)?
A. 

• About CBDC:
  • CBDCs are a digital form of a paper currency and unlike cryptocurrencies that operate in a regulatory vacuum, these are legal tenders issued and backed by a central bank.
  • It is the same as a fiat currency and is exchangeable one-to-one with the fiat currency.
    • A fiat currency is a national currency that is not pegged to the price of a commodity such as gold or silver.
  • The digital fiat currency or CBDC can be transacted using wallets backed by blockchain.
  • Though the concept of CBDCs was directly inspired by Bitcoin, it is different from decentralised virtual currencies and crypto assets, which are not issued by the state and lack the ‘legal tender’ status.
• Objectives:
  • The main objective is to mitigate the risks and trim costs in handling physical currency, costs ofphasing out soiled notes, transportation, insurance and logistics.
  • It will also wean people away from cryptocurrencies as a means for money transfer.
• Global Trends:
  • Bahamas has been the first economy to launch its nationwide CBDC — Sand Dollar.
  • Nigeria is another country to have rolled out eNaira in 2020.
  • China became the world's first major economy to pilot a digital currency e-CNY in April 2020.
  • Korea, Sweden, Jamaica, and Ukraine are some of the countries to have begun testing its digital currency and many more may soon follow.

Q. What are the Benefits & Challenges of CBDC?
A. 

• Benefits:
  • A Combination of Traditional and Innovative:
    • CBDC can gradually bring a cultural shift towards virtual currency by reducing currency handling costs.
    • CBDC is envisaged to bring in the best of both worlds:
      • The convenience and security of digital forms like cryptocurrencies
      • The regulated, reserved-backed money circulation of the traditional banking system.
  • Easier Cross-Border Payments:
    • CBDC can provide an easy means to speed up a reliable sovereign backed domestic paymentand settlement system partly replacing paper currency.
    • It could also be used for cross-border payments, it could eliminate the need for an expensive network of correspondent banks to settle cross-border payments.
  • Financial Inclusion:
    • The increased use of CBDC could be explored for many other financial activities to push the informal economy into the formal zone to ensure better tax and regulatory compliance.
    • It can also pave the way for furthering financial inclusion.
• Challenges:
  • Privacy Concerns:
    • The first issue to tackle is the heightened risk to the privacy of users—given that the central bank could potentially end up handling an enormous amount of data regarding user transactions.
      • This has serious implications given that digital currencies will not offer users the level of privacy and anonymity offered by transacting in cash.
    • Compromise of credentials is another major issue.
  • Disintermediation of Banks:
    • If sufficiently large and broad-based, the shift to CBDC can impinge upon the bank’s ability to plough back funds into credit intermediation.
    • If e-cash becomes popular and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) places no limit on the amount that can be stored in mobile wallets, weaker banks may struggle to retain low-cost deposits.
  • Other risks are:
    • Faster obsolescence of technology could pose a threat to the CBDC ecosystem calling for higher costs of upgradation.
    • Operational risks of intermediaries as the staff will have to be retrained and groomed to work in the CBDC environment.
    • Elevated cyber security risks, vulnerability testing and the costs of protecting the firewalls.
    • Operational burden and costs for the central bank in managing CBDC.

Q. What is the Way Forward?

A. 

• In order to obviate some weaknesses of CBDCs, the usage should be payment-focused to improve the payment and settlement system.
  • Then it can steer away from serving as a store of value to avoid the risks of disintermediation and its major monetary policy implications.
• The data stored with the central bank in a centralised system will hold grave security risks, and robustdata security systems will have to be set up to prevent data breaches.
  • Thus, it is important to employ the right technology that will back the issue of CBDCs.
• The sizing of the infrastructure required for the CBDC will remain tricky if payment transactions are carried out using the same system.
  • The RBI will have to map the technology landscape thoroughly and proceed cautiously with picking the correct technology for introducing CBDCs.
• The financial data collected on digital currency transactions will be sensitive in nature, and thegovernment will have to carefully think through the regulatory design.
  • This would require close interaction between the banking and data protection regulators.