central bank digital currency

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

a digital form of a country's sovereign currency issued and backed directly by the central bank, representing a liability of the central bank rather than a commercial bank; distinct from cryptocurrencies in being centralised, state-backed, and legal tender; the Bahamas Sand Dollar, the Chinese digital yuan (e-CNY), and the Nigerian eNaira are among the earliest live deployments; CBDCs are being explored by over 100 central banks as instruments for improving payment system efficiency, enabling programmable monetary policy, supporting financial inclusion, and countering the growth of private digital currencies; privacy advocates raise concerns about the potential for CBDCs to enable unprecedented surveillance of citizen financial behaviour