Will central bank digital currencies increase the power and responsibility of central banks?

These evidence sessions will be streamed live on Parliament TV.

At 3pm the committee will hear from:

• Patrick Honohan, Non-resident Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and former Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland
• Eswar Prasad, Senior Professor of Trade Policy and Professor of Economics at Cornell University.

At 4pm the committee will hear from:

• Jana Mackintosh, Managing Director for Payments and Innovation, UK Finance
• Peter Randall, Principal, The Aurora Project.

Questions the committee is likely to cover in these sessions include:

• CBDC will give central banks powerful abilities to introduce new unconventional monetary policy. What should and shouldn’t the Bank be able to do in a crisis?
• Are central banks in danger of finding themselves isolated and weakened dueto the proliferation of private stablecoins?
• Why do central banks seem to be prioritising retail CBDC over a wholesale digital currency?
• What competitive advantages might early adopters of central bank digital currencies get?
• Do CBDC represent a possible ‘step-change’ in the UK’s position in the global economy?
• Would CBDC affect banks’ ability to make money from payments in the future?
• How are banks responding to the threat of digital currencies and competition from Big Tech in payments?

More on this inquiry

The committee’s inquiry is looking at the main issues confronting HM Treasury and the Bank of England as they explore the potential of a possible CBDC for the UK. It will also examine how a CBDC might affect the role of the Bank, monetary policy and the financial sector.

Recently the committee took evidence from: Tom Keatinge, Director, Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies, The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI); Charlotte Hogg, CEO, Visa Europe; and Richard Brown, Chief Technology Officer, R3. You can watch this evidence session on Parliament TV.