Spanish Central Bank Focused On Creating Digital Currency: Report

The Spanish central bank is heavily focused on creating their own central bank digital currency and see the implications it has on the Spanish economy. Following the latest crypto news, we are reading more about their idea.

The Spanish Central Bank has a new strategic plan where they will focus on design proposals for a central bank digital currency. Spain is a member of the European Union which uses the EUR while the European Central Bank is also studying the digital euro. The bank released its strategic plan from 2020 to 2024 which outlines the priorities over the next four years. In addition to analyzing the European Central Bank policies and trends in the economy, the bank will look into a central bank digital currency.

The plan says it will study the effects of negative interest rates on banks and with all COVID-related stresses on the markets as well as other areas but it didn’t go into much detail on the CBDC efforts. However, it contended that CBDC research is a  priority under the theme “New Technologies and Information Sources.” The plan stated:

 “The implications for the financial system and the economy as a whole of the introduction of a central bank digital currency will be analysed, considering various design proposals and including aspects relating to digital identification.”

Spain doesn’t issue their own currency but as a member of the European Union, it is using the euro since 2002 when it left out the Spanish peseta. It is unlikely that the bank will issue a new digital peseta too. The European Central Bank President in 2017 Mario Draghi, criticized the EU zone member Estonia for their idea of issuing its own digital currency as he said:

 “No member state can introduce its own currency. The currency of the eurozone is the euro.”

The European Central Bank is now led by Christine Lagarde who is much more interested in digital currencies and with her leadership the ECB trademarked the digital euro as it published a comprehensive report on issuing the digital currency and launching consultations with the public about the implications of the CBDC. However, that’s still for the digital euro and not for the peseta. Juan Ayuso Huertas, the Director-General of Bank De Espana is also very active on the front and he is also a member of the high-level task force on Central Bank Digital coin which produced the report. He and Carlos Conesa published a report named “An Introduction to the Current Debate on Central Bank Digital Currency.”