| 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.

| Masaki Bessho, Bank of Japan
| Dr Steven Hu, Standard Chartered Bank, Singapore

There are many motivations for rolling out a CBDC, from achieving higher financial inclusion and higher transactional efficiency to preserving monetary sovereignty by compensating for the declining use of cash and by countering the entrance of new private forms of digital currencies.

Each country has a different set of features and objectives that make the CBDC’s design and roll-out a tailor-made process.

In the seventh session of FNA’s CBDC Broadcast, we talked to two guest speakers from the Bank of Japan and Standard Chartered Bank Singapore, who offer an insight into CBDCs from an Asia-Pacific perspective.

The Session Covered

• An overview of CBDCs in Japan and Singapore
• The motivations and challenges, and expected outcomes of introducing a retail CBDC
• Whether there is a first-mover advantage when it comes to rolling out a CBDC
• Should CBDCs serve as a complement to or substitute for cash?
• The implications of introducing a CBDC on custodians like Standard Chartered and the securities services industry
• An insight into the Bank of Japan’s CBDC ledger design alternatives
• Can a central bank balance the delicate trade-off between the privacy of transactions and anti-money laundering considerations.
• How can central banks and relevant stakeholders assess the potential outcomes and effects that influence CBDC design choices?