Canada’s central bank steps back from digital currency exploration: report

The Bank of Canada has reportedly abandoned the idea of ​​issuing a digital Canadian dollar.

The Bank of Canada appears to be moving away from developing a government-backed digital currency, seven years after it first began exploring the idea in response to the rapid digitization of payments. According to a report by CBC News, Canada’s central bank appears less inclined to pursue the so-called digital Loonie.

By press time, the Bank of Canada had not made any public statement on whether it had halted its research efforts to develop a digital currency. In a comment to CBC News, a spokesperson for the central bank acknowledged that the bank was conducting “significant research on the implications of a retail central bank digital currency.”

But the bank has decided to shift its efforts to analyze payments system trends in Canada and globally, the report says. The shift comes as data from think tank Atlantic Council reveals that 134 countries, covering 98% of the global economy, have researched digital currencies, and 44 are currently experimenting with central bank digital currencies.

Canada pauses amid global push for CBDC

The data also shows that more than 65 countries, including India, Australia, and Brazil, are in advanced stages of CBDC exploration, whether in development, pilot, or launch stages. According to the think tank, each G20 country is currently researching its own CBDC, with 19 in advanced stages of exploration.

In mid-August, Canadian Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre came out strongly against the development of a central bank digital currency in Canada, vowing to protect the use of cash and resist government efforts to digitalize the economy. He also backed Canadian House of Commons member Ted Falk’s Bill C-400, which aims to ban the issuance of such a currency.