KATE THOMPSON DAVY: Are we ready for an iRand? And do we need it?
The Reserve Bank would hold all your personal and transactional information without the intermediary role of a private bank
Last week the SA Reserve Bank joined the growing ranks of international central banks “looking into” central bank digital currencies (CBDC). Around the time I was putting the finishing touches to my column (read: furiously typing with one eye on the clock), it issued a brief statement — just 250 words or so — confirming it is initiating a study, specifically the “feasibility, desirability and appropriateness of [digital currencies] as electronic legal tender ... complementary to cash”.
It’s certainly a trendy pursuit of public service economists. That bastion of fiscal inscrutability, the Bahamas, was the first to launch a fully functioning central bank digital currency, called the “sand dollar”. South Korea, Japan, Norway, Indonesia, and Sweden are all testing theirs, while on the continent SA joins Kenya, Ghana, Morocco and Egypt in the exploratory stage...
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