Boston, July 14, 2020 –Central banks around the world have been toying with the idea of issuing a digital version of their currency for over a decade. The discussion on CBDCs won’t be just another industry topic; it will be very political. CBDCs will bring to the forefront many questions regarding the nature of money, how it is created, who has sovereignty over it, how it moves across borders, how monetary policies work, how central banks interact with commercial banks, and the future of the U.S. dollar as a global reserve currency.

The report aims to help financial institutions, payment firms, and technology vendors gain a greater understanding of CBDCs and of the potential impact on their organizations. The report is based on desk research of nearly 200 research reports, speeches, conference materials, articles, podcasts, and webinars as well as 50 interviews with central bankers, regulators, commercial bankers, fintech executives, technology vendors, attorneys, academics, consultants, researchers, and activists across North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Interviews were conducted between March and July 2020.

This 62-page Impact Report contains three figures and eight tables. Clients of Aite Group’s Retail Banking & Payments, Wholesale Banking & Payments, or Institutional Securities & Investments service can download this report, the corresponding charts, and the Executive Impact Deck.

This report mentions Abra, Accenture, Adhara, Algorand, Alibaba, AliPay, Amazon, American Express, AVA Labs, Baidu, Bank for International Settlements (BIS), Bank of Canada, Bank of England, Bank of Japan, Bank of the Marshall Islands, Bankgirot, Banque de France, Bitt, Block.one, Central Bank of Venezuela, Circle, Clearmatics, Coinbase, ConsenSys, De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), Deloitte, Digital Assets, Digital Dollar Foundation, Discover, Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, eCurrency, European Central Bank (ECB), Facebook, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Federal Reserve, Finteum, FIS, Fiserv, Fnality, Gemini, Global Payments, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, Hyperledger Fabric, IBM World Wire, International Monetary Fund (IMF), International Telecommunication Union (ITU), JD.com, JPMorgan Chase, M-Pesa, Mastercard, Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Natixis, OECD, Pan European Payment System Initiative (Pepsi), PayPal, People’s Bank of China, Positive Money, PWC, R3, Revolut, Riksbank, Robinhood, SETL, Signature Bank, South African Reserve Bank, Square, Starbucks, Stellar Foundation, SWIFT, Swiss National Bank, Tencent, The Clearing House, Venmo, Visa, Wells Fargo, WePay, Worldline, and Zelle.