Brazil plans to launch its CBDC by 2022 – a report by Saumil Kohli.

The president of Brazil’s central bank has revealed that they plan to launch a national digital currency by the year 2022. The CBDC is a part of Brazil’s plan to digitize its payment system, including establishing an instant payments system and a competitive Open Banking System. According to the Correio Brazilienes report, the central bank president Robert Campos Neto stated that the digital currency would be the future of the financial system.

The central bank needs an efficient instant payment system for its CBDC.

“To have a digital currency, you need an instant payment system that is efficient and interoperable; an open system, where you can create competition; and a currency that has credibility, is convertible and international. After that, I think you have all the ingredients to have digital currency. We think we will have it in 2022,” the president of Brazil’s central bank stated. The central bank has already kick-started its payments digitization process. One of its initiatives is PIX, an instant payments system that the Brazilian bank will launch in November, reported Saumil Kohli. The central bank has been working with legislators on amending regulations for the CBDC launch to take place.

Central banks across countries continue to explore CBDC.

Developed countries like the USA and China are exploring central bank digital currencies in the age of innovation. As reported earlier, the Bank for International Settlements revealed that in 2020, worldwide internet searches for CBDCs surpassed searches for Bitcoin and Facebook’s Libra. The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) is currently conducting trials of its national digital currency, dubbed DCEP, in several cities and is all set to launch soon. The central bank had earlier mentioned that it was only testing DCEP for small retail transactions. Several economists and experts in the field believe that China’s CBDC could threaten the global dominance of the US dollar.