{
  "title": "Going Cashless: Central Banks and Digital Currencies — IMF F&D Magazine (Point of View)",
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2018/06/central-banks-and-digital-currencies-point",
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  "summary": "How Central Banks should think about digital currencies, digital payments and the future of money. Stefan Ingves, governor of the world’s oldest central bank in Sweden, explains their move to a cashless society.",
  "sections": [
    {
      "heading": "Current trends in Sweden and internationally",
      "content": "- Sweden is rapidly moving away from cash: demand for cash has dropped by more than 50 percent over the past decade.\n- More than half of all bank branches no longer handle cash.\n- Seven out of ten consumers say they can manage without cash.\n- Half of all merchants expect to stop accepting cash by 2025 (Arvidsson, Hedman, and Segendorf 2018).\n- Cash now accounts for just 13 percent of payments in stores (Riksbank 2018).\n- Real-time mobile payments for individuals (Swish) have become widespread in Sweden.\n- Similar mobile-payment adoption exists in several Asian and African countries, including India, Pakistan, Kenya, and Tanzania.\n- The Chinese payments market is changing quickly."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Implications for central banks and the payments infrastructure",
      "content": "- Longstanding digital solutions for large interbank payments have now filtered down to individual retail payments.\n- Concentration risk: clearing and transfers in Sweden are concentrated in one system, Bankgirot.\n- Network effects and positive externalities: the value of a payments system increases as more users connect, making payments akin to collective utilities.\n- Basic requirements citizens expect from a payments market:\n  - Broad availability of services.\n  - Safe and secure infrastructure with reliable settlement of payment orders.\n  - Efficiency: fast settlement, lowest possible cost, and perceived simplicity and ease of use.\n- Concern: uncertainty whether these requirements can continue to be met if cash declines."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Risks and social considerations",
      "content": "- If banknotes and coins become uncommon, the public may lose access to a state-guaranteed means of payment.\n- Private-sector dominance could control accessibility, technological developments, and pricing of payment methods.\n- Potential consequences include further limiting financial access for groups that currently rely solely on cash.\n- Reduced competition and redundancy in payments infrastructure if the state withdraws.\n- Legal tender: cash currently has a natural place as the only legal tender; the meaning of legal tender in a cashless society is unclear."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Central bank digital currency (CBDC) and crypto assets",
      "content": "- Question posed: should central banks start issuing digital currency to the public? The issue is complex and will be debated for years.\n- Practical expectations: \"I am convinced that within 10 years we will almost exclusively be paying digitally, both in Sweden and in many parts of the world.\"\n- Demographic driver: young people in Sweden already use practically no cash.\n- Crypto assets assessment:\n  - Not considered money by the author because they do not fulfill the three essential functions of money—to serve as a means of payment, a unit of account, and a store of value.\n  - Crypto assets mainly demonstrate that financial infrastructure can be built in new ways (blockchain, smart contracts).\n  - They are characterized as assets and high-risk investments; clear communication from central banks is important to help prevent unnecessary bubbles.\n  - Regulatory frameworks and supervision for crypto assets may need review."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Policy stance and open questions",
      "content": "- The state has a role to regulate or provide payments infrastructure to ensure smooth functioning and robustness.\n- The state cannot entirely withdraw from its social responsibility in payments and access.\n- Open questions for policymaking:\n  - Whether central banks should continue supplying a state-guaranteed means of payment.\n  - Whether retail payments infrastructure should be transferred to a purely private market.\n  - What the state's new role should be in a predominantly digital payments environment.\n\nSource: Going Cashless: Central Banks and Digital Currencies — Stefan Ingves, IMF F&D Magazine, June 2018.\n\n---\n\n Content in this bundle\n\n- الاستغناء عن النقود\n  - الاستغناء عن النقود (Markdown version){rel=\"alternate\" type=\"text/markdown\"}\n  - الاستغناء عن النقود (PDF){rel=\"external\" type=\"application/pdf\"}\n- Punto de vista: No más efectivo ● El dinero se transforma ● Finanzas y Desarrollo ● Junio de 2018\n  - Punto de vista: No más efectivo ● El dinero se transforma ● Finanzas y Desarrollo ● Junio de 2018 (Markdown version){rel=\"alternate\" type=\"text/markdown\"}\n  - Punto de vista: No más efectivo ● El dinero se transforma ● Finanzas y Desarrollo ● Junio de 2018 (PDF){rel=\"external\" type=\"application/pdf\"}\n- Point de vue : Une société sans argent liquide\n  - Point de vue : Une société sans argent liquide (Markdown version){rel=\"alternate\" type=\"text/markdown\"}\n  - Point de vue : Une société sans argent liquide (PDF){rel=\"external\" type=\"application/pdf\"}\n- Going Cashless: Central Banks and Digital Currencies – IMF F&D Magazine\n  - Going Cashless: Central Banks and Digital Currencies – IMF F&D Magazine (Markdown version){rel=\"alternate\" type=\"text/markdown\"}\n  - Going Cashless: Central Banks and Digital Currencies – IMF F&D Magazine (PDF){rel=\"external\" type=\"application/pdf\"}\n- Точка зрения. Переход на безналичные деньги– Финансы и развитие – июнь 2018 года\n  - Точка зрения. Переход на безналичные деньги– Финансы и развитие – июнь 2018 года (Markdown version){rel=\"alternate\" type=\"text/markdown\"}\n  - Точка зрения. Переход на безналичные деньги– Финансы и развитие – июнь 2018 года (PDF){rel=\"external\" type=\"application/pdf\"}\n- 迈向无现金社会 - 观点 - 金融与发展\n  - 迈向无现金社会 - 观点 - 金融与发展 (Markdown version){rel=\"alternate\" type=\"text/markdown\"}\n  - 迈向无现金社会 - 观点 - 金融与发展 (PDF){rel=\"external\" type=\"application/pdf\"}\n\n---\n\nSource: https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2018/06/central-banks-and-digital-currencies-point"
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    "Authors: STEFAN INGVES",
    "Published: June 1, 2018",
    "Sweden is rapidly moving away from cash: demand for cash has dropped by more than 50 percent over the past decade.",
    "More than half of all bank branches no longer handle cash.",
    "Seven out of ten consumers say they can manage without cash.",
    "Half of all merchants expect to stop accepting cash by 2025 (Arvidsson, Hedman, and Segendorf 2018).",
    "Cash now accounts for just 13 percent of payments in stores (Riksbank 2018).",
    "Real-time mobile payments for individuals (Swish) have become widespread in Sweden.",
    "Similar mobile-payment adoption exists in several Asian and African countries, including India, Pakistan, Kenya, and Tanzania.",
    "The Chinese payments market is changing quickly.",
    "Longstanding digital solutions for large interbank payments have now filtered down to individual retail payments.",
    "Concentration risk: clearing and transfers in Sweden are concentrated in one system, Bankgirot.",
    "Network effects and positive externalities: the value of a payments system increases as more users connect, making payments akin to collective utilities.",
    "Basic requirements citizens expect from a payments market:",
    "Concern: uncertainty whether these requirements can continue to be met if cash declines.",
    "If banknotes and coins become uncommon, the public may lose access to a state-guaranteed means of payment.",
    "Private-sector dominance could control accessibility, technological developments, and pricing of payment methods.",
    "Potential consequences include further limiting financial access for groups that currently rely solely on cash.",
    "Reduced competition and redundancy in payments infrastructure if the state withdraws.",
    "Legal tender: cash currently has a natural place as the only legal tender; the meaning of legal tender in a cashless society is unclear.",
    "Question posed: should central banks start issuing digital currency to the public? The issue is complex and will be debated for years.",
    "Practical expectations: \"I am convinced that within 10 years we will almost exclusively be paying digitally, both in Sweden and in many parts of the world.\"",
    "Demographic driver: young people in Sweden already use practically no cash.",
    "Crypto assets assessment:",
    "The state has a role to regulate or provide payments infrastructure to ensure smooth functioning and robustness.",
    "The state cannot entirely withdraw from its social responsibility in payments and access.",
    "Open questions for policymaking:",
    "**الاستغناء عن النقود**",
    "**Punto de vista: No más efectivo ● El dinero se transforma ● Finanzas y Desarrollo ● Junio de 2018**",
    "**Point de vue : Une société sans argent liquide**",
    "**Going Cashless: Central Banks and Digital Currencies – IMF F&D Magazine**",
    "**Точка зрения. Переход на безналичные деньги– Финансы и развитие – июнь 2018 года**",
    "**迈向无现金社会 - 观点 - 金融与发展**"
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