Bank of Canada Winds Down Retail CBDC Work, Shifts Focus to Broader Payments Research

Reducing its activities on a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC), the Bank of Canada is focusing instead on other vital payments system research and policy development. Announced on the central bank’s website, this change underlines that while retail CBDC research is being reduced, more general study on wholesale CBDCs and payments systems will keep on.

The bank has insisted that, should it prove required, a retail CBDC was just a “contingency plan.” The bank is ready to assume additional duties, especially with the emergence of more urgent payment concerns, hence the choice to turn away from retail CBDC research comes as natural. “With other payments issues gaining prominence,” the Bank of Canada said in a statement, “the Bank is scaling down its work on a retail central bank digital currency and focusing on broader payments system research and policy development.”

A major component of this change is the creation of Payments Canada, the nation’s payment clearing agency, the retail-oriented Real-Time Rail quick payment system. Including the Bank of Canada among its members, this group keeps its attention on retail payments infrastructure.

Moreover, the central bank is getting ready for a bigger involvement under the Retail Payment Activities Act of 2021. This laws assigns the bank new operational risk criteria by 2025 and registration of 2,500 small payment service providers in November.

Notwithstanding this change, the Bank of Canada underlined that its studies on CBDCs, carried out in conjunction with the Digital Currency Initiative of MIT and the Bank of International Settlements, will still be essential. Although Canadians exhibit little interest in a CBDC right now, the bank pointed out that the foundation established would come in handy should legislative changes generate future demand for a digital Canadian dollar.

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