Central Bank Digital Currency - Objectives, preconditions and design choices

In principle, DNB has a favourable attitude to central bank digital currency (CBDC) which is money issued by a central bank and generally accessible to households and businesses. We believe the continued use of a public form of money is important. After all, the fungibility between private money and public money bolsters confidence in money when it is needed most - in periods of uncertainty including war, financial crisis or disruption of private payments. It is at those times that the demand for public money increases. Cash has fulfilled this role, but given the decrease in the use of cash this may be set to change in the future. The trend of declining use of cash has long been ongoing and appears to be of a structural nature. CBDC could provide the desired policy options to protect the balance between public and private forms of money and safeguard the fungibility between private and public money.The aim of this report is to contribute to the public debate on CBDC. The introduction of CBDC would involve a structural reform affecting users and the financial system as well as DNB's tasks and objectives. The social impact of such a reform requires broad public debate both in the Netherlands and the euro area as a whole. This study therefore serves as DNB's input for the debate on CBDC within the euro area. The euro was introduced in the Netherlands in 1999, involving a transfer of monetary policy autonomy to the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). That holds for CBDC as well. As a consequence, this study also looks at the European institutional and legal framework for CBDC.