. CBDC cultivation Source: CBDC Tracker (cbdctracker.org). Note: The map shows both retail and wholesale CBDCs. A country can have multiple CBDCs; the map shows the status of the most advanced stage of development in each country. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and any other information shown on maps do not imply, on the part of the IMF, any judgment on the legal status of any territory or any endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries.
economic integration across borders. How can this vision be achieved? It will take new public infrastructure at the wholesale, retail, and cross-border levels. First, wholesale CBDCs—a superior representation of central bank money for use exclusively by banks and other trusted institutions—can offer new technical capabilities. These include the programmability, composability, and tokenization previously mentioned. Wholesale CBDCs could unlock significant innovation that benefits end users. For instance, the buyer and seller of a house could agree up-front that the
are being considered in case the risk becomes significant. The Financial Stability Board (FSB) and other international standard setting bodies continue to update their guidance on this front. MAS will soon issue proposals to regulate stable-coins in Singapore. Wholesale CBDCs A CBDC is a direct liability and payment instrument of a central bank. Wholesale CBDCs are restricted to use by financial intermediaries and are akin to the balances commercial banks now place with a central bank. MAS sees a strong case for wholesale CBDCs, especially in cross
central bank (see IMF 2018 ). If the CBDC is intended for use by the general public, it is referred to as a “general purpose” or retail CBDC. It offers a new option to the general public for storing value and making payments, quite similar to cash or electronic forms of traditional currency. A wholesale CBDC targets a different group of end users, mainly financial institutions ( BIS 2018 ). Crypto assets are a type of privately-issued digital assets that depend primarily on cryptography and distributed ledger technology (DLT) for record keeping. Some have their own