Digital Currencies & Smart Payments Working Group
Background and mission
The Digital Currencies & Smart Payments Working Group explores strategic considerations around digital currencies. It examines use cases, options and opportunities that the introduction of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) may offer for the banking industry. The working group aims to contribute to learning about and exploring the emergence of digital currencies, and to analyse the potential applications, opportunities and implications thereof, with the objective to produce white papers on the topic.
Launched in 2016, the working group started off by exploring the use of cryptotechnologies in trade finance, international payments and regulatory compliance. In 2019, considering the increasing significance of the Internet of Things in the financial sector and the emergence of “stablecoin” initiatives, the EBA Board extended the mandate of the working group to exploring smart payments & stablecoins and consequently renamed the Working Group “Cryptotechnologies, Smart Payments and Stablecoins Working Group”. In 2023, the name of the working group was changed to “Digital Currencies & Smart Payments Working Group” to reflect the current focus on digital currencies.
Publications
June 2023: "The Digital Euro - A guide for banks: possible ways forward and steps to prepare for the introduction of the digital euro"
March 2022: "CBDC, stablecoins and beyond: a deep dive into new forms of digital money"
March 2021: "Digital currencies: a first look at potential opportunities and challenges for banks"
September 2019: "The Internet of Things and Smart Payments"
October 2018: "Cryptotechnologies: Improving Regulatory Compliance"
September 2017: "Security and identity challenges in cryptotechnologies"
March 2017: "Cryptotechnologies in international payments"
May 2016: "Applying cryptotechnologies to Trade Finance"
May 2015: "Cryptotechnologies, a major IT innovation and catalyst for change: 4 categories, 4 applications and 4 scenarios"