Equally numerous countries across the board navigate their feelings on central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, Benoît Cœuré of the Depository financial institution for International Settlements thinks physical greenbacks will retain its importance. Heading up the BIS' innovation wing, Cœuré formerly held a position with the European Central Banking concern on its executive board.

"In the euro area, unlike Sweden or China, demand for banknotes is withal strong," Cœuré said in an interview on Thursday. "Their role is declining every bit a means of payment, simply they remain a ways of savings." He added:

"No one wants to force consumers to cull their payment methods. Diversity is a good thing and it fosters innovation. The goal is to offer option, which ways assuasive consumers to proceed paying with currency issued by the central bank."

Cœuré expressed a multitude of points on the CBDC scene globally. He described innovation as a natural office of growth, mentioning other countries' varying stances and pacing on CBDCs, likewise every bit Facebook'southward Libra.

China, in particular, has blazed a trail in the CBDC race, while the Us has taken more of a wait-and-see approach.

CBDCs substantially hold the potential for removing concrete cash birthday — a positive or negative outcome, depending on one's view. Contingent on the country, some regions, such as the U.South., operate largely digitally already. A CBDC could mean a blockchain-based solution. Information technology could also involve banking with the Federal Reserve instead of commercial banks, based on the road the U.S. takes.

"Central banking concern digital currency is simply the digital equivalent of coins and banknotes — the safest currency at that place is, issued by a public institution," Cœuré expressed, calculation:

"In the time to come, you lot volition be able to pay for your java in diverse ways: Obviously with banknotes and coins, which will remain available as long as necessary, but also with banking company cards, digital currency issued by the primal bank, payment systems like Apple Pay, PayPal or — when an adequate regulatory framework has been decided — with Libra."

Cœuré fifty-fifty mentioned Bitcoin (BTC) as a viable payment route: "If you want to pay in Bitcoin, why non, if you and the trader empathise and assume the risks associated with this active crypto."

Concrete greenbacks holds important properties possibly unavailable in CBDCs, nevertheless, such as availability during power outages.