CBDCs, banknotes and bank deposits: the financial stability nexus

José Ramón Martínez Resano
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José Ramón Martínez Resano: BANCO DE ESPAÑA

No 2436, Occasional Papers from Banco de España

Abstract: This paper explores the financial stability nexus within a monetary ecosystem that has been expanded to include a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The paper examines the new risks associated with the introduction of a CBDC, their mitigants and their potential amplification factors. Economists and academics still seem to be split on the validity of the traditional principle of separating money into two tiers of public and private money, as a structural mitigant of the risks of deposit substitution and banking disintermediation towards CBDCs. The potential amplification of the risks associated with CBDCs through credit-related second-round effects is an additional concern. The systematic study of the risks and mitigants carried out in the paper highlights the importance of partially adapting the two-tier system of money by implementing certain limits, as envisaged in CBDC plans. The endogenous mitigation of the risks through improved bank competition often attributed to CBDCs is uncertain and may be insufficient from a systemic risk perspective. The introduction of exogenous mitigants, like CBDC holding limits calibrated on the basis of a robust methodology, seems instrumental to ensure the consistency of a monetary ecosystem that includes a CBDC. Hence, the paper addresses some fundamental methodological issues related to these limits, such as the rationale for alternative targets for the limits, the influence of disintermediation speed, the time horizons involved in the limitation and adaptation process, and the role of regulatory and market frictions. An illustrative empirical analysis for the Spanish case indicates that financial stability might not be a concern for reasonable levels of CBDC take-up, although the complexity and novelty of this instrument call for a more in-depth analysis in the future.

Keywords: central bank digital currency; digital money; payments; financial stability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E41 E42 E51 E52 E58 G21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 51 pages
Date: 2024-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cba, nep-fdg, nep-mon and nep-pay
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bde:opaper:2436

DOI: 10.53479/38457

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