NSU’s law department organised a webinar on “The Future of Central Bank Digital Currency: Digital Yuan and Beyond” on February 25. Co-Director of the Herbert Smith Freehills China International Business and Economic Law (CIBEL) Centre Prof. Heng Wang spoke as the guest speaker. Law department’s Chair Prof. Md Rizwanul Islam gave the introductory speech.
The speaker approached the topic through three central questions: What is China’s approach to CBDC, how to understand the approach, and what about its future. He then went on to address these questions in his talk explaining how CBDC is different from other digital currencies like Bitcoin. One of the most important differences is that CBDC is centrally controlled by the government and other digital currencies are privately owned.
Prof. Wang explained how the People’s Bank of China would issue e-CNY and then operating institutions, like large state-owned banks and internet banks, will disseminate the e-CNY and provide services to users to open digital wallets. Other banks will provide e-CNY services to people and lastly, consumers and businesses will be able to use e-CNY.
China, through e-CNY, aims to reshape the international financial order by reducing reliance on the US Dollar, and impacting technology on international frameworks of CBDC and amplifying the global usage of the Yuan, the Chinese currency.
Prof. Wang further discussed the challenges like policy risks of CBDC, operational risks of CBDC, protection and safety of users’ data, etc. He concluded that in the future, a balance has to be struck between efficiency and safety and explained that adjustments to the change in practice is necessary.
The webinar was followed by a question-answer session which was moderated by Prof. Rizwanul. Students from NSU, and faculty members from NSU and different foreign universities participated in the webinar.
