The deputy governor of the Bank of Italy says that, in the short term, the central bank is not ready to launch digital currencies.
Fabio Panetta, deputy governor of the Bank of Italy, was the voice of the opening speech at the Suerf Center Conference and Baffi Carefin (applied research center on international markets, banking, finance and regulation) at Bocconi University. In his comments, he was the last to discuss the possibility that central banks could handle digital assets, as in the case of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or some of the concepts that work based on the Blockchain ... Panetta started his main speech distancing the cryptocurrency conversation.
According to a transcript of his comments published by the Bank for International Settlements, the official said:
In fact, like banknotes, a digital currency of the central bank (CBDC) would be a responsibility of it and would be supported by its assets, by the credibility of the bank and, ultimately, by law. Cryptoactives, on the other hand, are a liability that does not belong to anyone; there are no assets that support them or a clear government structure that can guarantee trust. The value of a digital currency would not suffer from the excessive volatility that affects the cryptoactives ".
In this way, digital assets would continue to suffer the same volatility created by the potential for government intervention in monetary policy, a concern that has previously been linked as a cause for people seeking comfort in cryptoactives such as Bitcoin.
However, Panetta did point out other advantages of digital currencies. For example, he emphasized the lower costs of managing a digital currency instead of the physical distribution, as in the case of cash.
In his words:
Since it is totally dematerialized, a digital currency would have very little or no storage cost and would be a convenient way for households and businesses to maintain liquid wealth. "
Such effects, in his opinion "would not necessarily be harmful to banks". However, a number of other fundamental characteristics that define digital currencies could be negative, according to him.
For example, Panetta asked if digital currencies should be tracked or designed to guarantee, as far as possible, anonymity. In this regard, he expressed his ethical concern for a future in which banks can track all consumer transactions and make decisions about the solvency of an individual based on that information.
He also tested the following hypothetical case:
If central banks decided to make an asset - as in the case of a digital currency - free of credit and liquidity risk, possibly remunerated and available to anyone at no cost, their role in the economy would fundamentally change ... Are central banks ready? to play this new role? to deal with the concomitant complexities? In the short term, my answer is no. "
To conclude, Panetta said that regardless of whether one day we will live in a world driven by digital money, research is here to stay.