| Beju Shah, Head of Nordic Centre, BIS Innovation Hub
| Dr Lars Hupel, CBDC Evangelist, Giesecke+Devrient

CBDC’s Offline capabilities is a crucial topic that holds significant implications for the future of digital payments and financial systems worldwide.

As digital transformation rapidly reshapes the way we conduct transactions, it is imperative that we ensure inclusivity, accessibility, and privacy for every individual and business. CBDCs have emerged as a powerful tool in this transformative landscape, revolutionizing the way we think about money.

However, we must address a critical question: How can we ensure that CBDC systems work for everyone in society, regardless of their location or connectivity? The answer lies in exploring and understanding the offline capabilities of CBDCs. The ability to conduct transactions offline not only provides a layer of resilience but also supports crucial objectives, such as financial inclusion, accessibility, and privacy.

To discuss the intricacies of CBDC offline capabilities, guests Beju Shah (BIS Innovation Hub) and Dr Lars Hupel (Giesecke+Devrient) joined FNA to explore the technologies, security threats and risks associated with offline payments and delve into the CBDC design criteria that enable privacy, inclusion and resilience.

| John Velissarios, Accenture
| Raoul Herborg, Giesecke + Devrient

CBDC is a very particular product. An extremely successful rollout, with massive adoption, could affect financial stability as deposits could migrate to CBDCs. On the other hand, poor adoption could mean a reputational risk event for the central bank. Therefore, unlike most central bank products, it looks like CBDC design should be user-oriented, with consumers and merchants as the main users and commercial banks as distributors. This means that before CBDCs are rolled out, there has to be a design phase that studies under which design options the CBDC will be used will be convenient, as well as safe, reliable, and efficient.

Guests John Velissarios (Accenture/DEA/DDP) and Raoul Herborg (Giesecke + Devrient) joined FNA for session #9 of The CBDC Broadcast as we discussed how some design options could shape the rollout and adoption of CBDCs. The session played close attention to the particular balance CBDCs must achieve to be successful, that is, being effectively adopted without jeopardizing the stability of the financial system.

The session covered:

• How to achieve a digital version of cash to provide an instant and secure payment option for everyone, everywhere
• The obstacles in making CBDCs accessible to all groups of society and factors considered to ensure inclusivity during the design and pilot phases
• Whether central banks should develop global standards to ensure interoperability between jurisdictions
• CBDCs and offline payment capabilities
• Whether banked people with easy access to commercial bank money feel the need to hold and use a CBDC balance