It’s time to start thinking about CBDCs as an intelligent form of QE

No one central bank digital currency (CBDC) is ever quite the same as another. But so far every CBDC project has focused largely on the technicalities of making payments – by or to unbanked consumers or businesses, or between counterparties across national borders, or to prevent consumers and businesses undermining the role of central banks by making payments with alternatives such as cryptocurrencies or Stablecoins. This has confined thinking to far too narrow a range, argues Vadim Sobolevski, co-founder of FutureFlow. He thinks CBDCs have the potential to transform not just the conduct of payments, or even monetary policy, but the implementation of economic and social policy itself. CBDCs, in his view, can and should be used to manufacture credit and direct liquidity precisely where they are needed. He spoke to Future of Finance co-founder, Dominic Hobson.