Central banks are actively involved in the research, development and piloting of retail digital currencies. The factors stimulating this active interest are several: (1) the decreasing use of cash for transaction purposes, especially in developed countries; (2) the increasing use of smartphone utilization in developed countries; (3) the absence, in less developed countries, of wide access to formal banking arrangements combined with the widespread availability of smartphones; (4) the availability of emerging digital information and communications technologies, driving a global digital age; and (5) a potential enhanced ability to target central bank monetary policy directly at individual consumer spending. There is also an urgency for central banks to explore wholesale cross-border CBDCs, given central banks’ desire to maintain international financial stability. These various concerns are seen by central banks, and by governments, as requiring a defence of fiat currencies, the crucial trust-anchor role of central banks, and monetary/financial stability, within monetary jurisdictions (BIS 2021).

Central banks are especially concerned with the problems and risks associated with private international cross-border payments, and the opportunities presented for establishing wholesale CBDCs for cross-border financial transfers. Currently some 92 central banks around the world are participating in the various worldwide projects. For example, an April 2021 stock-take of central bank research and design efforts finds that out of 47 current retail CBDC projects, 11 are in addition exploring or piloting single national currency and multi-currency wholesale CBDCs in cross-border environments (Auer & Böhme 2021). Some jurisdictions such as The Bahamas, Nigeria and China, have launched their CBDCs. The cross-border dimension is being taken seriously by the G20 Road Map (FSB 2022) and being followed up by the BIS, given the potential for global trade instability of an extended use of stable-coins for this purpose. Several of these cross-border projects are discussed throughout this book and are detailed in the Appendices.

The salient features of the current monetary payments scene as it is evolving in digital forms are also explored, including the limited regulatory response of the state in most countries, and the general response of central banks, with several examples of CBDC approaches, within and across jurisdictions.