Slow Progress in U.S. on a CBDC Means Falling Behind China, India, Report Suggests

WASHINGTON—The United States' slow progress on central bank digital currencies is seeing it fall behind the likes of China, India and the European Union on the future of money, a think tank is warning.

China has ramped up its digital yuan work over the last year, while the ECB is now in the preparation phase for a digital euro and India is seeing a million transactions per day processed by commercial banks throughout the country for the digital rupee, Finextra noted.
“Yet in the U.S., the Federal Reserve has been cautious about pushing ahead with pilots and several governors have expressed skepticism about the need for a CBDC,” the report added. “This month, Donald Trump vowed to prevent the creation of a digital dollar if he wins the U.S. presidential election, calling a CBDC a ‘dangerous threat to freedom’.”

An Additional Warning
Josh Lipsky and Ananya Kumar from the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Centre also warned that technological payments innovation at the Fed is lagging behind its peers and competitors. As an example, they note that the People' Bank of China has more than 300 people dedicated to CBDC work; the Fed has fewer than 20, Finextra pointed out.