The CBDC Revolution: The Future of Private and Public Currencies in a Global Context
Channel: Global Policy Institute (GPI London)
Date: 2023-09-07

This was the fourth and final session of "The CBDC Revolution: International Implications of Central Bank Digital Currencies" conference. In this session, Professor Barry Buzan (University of California, Berkeley), Susan Friedman (Ripple) and Dr Zhouchen Mao (Asia House) discussed the challenge that is being potentially posed to public money channels by private sector digital innovation, especially stablecoins, and the response of central banks in using CBDCs for cross-border transfers. This challenge has international/global monetary implications, including the future of the US dollar zone. 

SPEAKERS 
Susan Friedman, Head of Global Policy, Ripple 
Dr Zhouchen Mao, Head of Research, Asia House 
Professor Barry Eichengreen, Professor of Political Economy and Political Science, University of California (Berkeley) 

CHAIR: Dr Michael Lloyd, Associate Director & Head of CBDC in Focus, Global Policy Institute 

THE CBDC REVOLUTION CONFERENCE 
On the 24th of April 2023, the Global Policy Institute (GPI) and Digital Pound Foundation hosted a full-day conference in London on "The CBDC Revolution: Global Implications of Central Bank Digital Currencies". 

The conference was kindly supported by our sponsors, Clifford Chance, Global Counsel, Own Explains by Ava Labs, Z/Yen Group, TheCityUK, Coventry University London, and Risk Ledger, and boasted an impressive speaker line-up from organisations including the Bank of England, BIS, SWIFT, Visa, UK Finance, Accenture, Clifford Chance, Ripple, Z/Yen, the University of Bern, and Asia House. 

CONFERENCE THEME: 
Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) represent a revolution in the international financial system and of money itself. While most money today is already digital, CBDCs herald a major change to the management of digital public money, and its provision to non-financial enterprises and to the public. 

Policymakers as well as financial, legal, and technology stakeholders are already busy debating important questions pertaining to the future functioning of CBDCs, the relationship between public and private money, as well as the technological opportunities and global legal challenges involved. 

However, the introduction of CBDCs has even more far-reaching global implications. These follow from the increasingly dysfunctional structure of the current global political economy. The US dollar- denominated international monetary system no longer provides the necessary structural global financial stability and is facing mounting challenges. These crucially include large sections of the non-Western world building their own alternative systemic structures, which risks the rise of a fragmented and even less stable global monetary order. 

What constitutive response CBDCs will be able to offer to these global challenges, including the implications for the international financial system, was the theme of this conference, organised by the Global Policy Institute and the Digital Pound Foundation, and kindly hosted by Clifford Chance. 

ABOUT THE GLOBAL POLICY INSTITUTE 
The Global Policy Institute (GPI London) is an independent and non-partisan think tank that was founded in 2007 to analyse questions of globalisation and the changing world order. The Institute is based in the City of London and draws on a rich pool of international thinkers, academics as well as policy and business professionals. The Institute’s current research priorities centre on central banks, monetary policy, international currency regimes and the formation of digital currency areas, with a particular emphasis on how these relate to questions of multipolarity, regionalisation, geopolitics and world order. The Institute gives non-partisan guidance to policymakers and decision takers in business, government, and NGOs. 

www.gpilondon.com 

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