Citigroup Chief Government Michael Corbat mentioned his financial institution helps governments “around the globe” in creating sovereign digital currencies, in any other case often called central financial institution digital currencies, or CBDC.
Chatting with David Rubenstein at a Friday Bloomberg occasion, Corbat made clear CBDCs are an “inevitable” growth in the way forward for cash. Citigroup, the multinational banking large, helps carry that future about.
“We’ve been working with governments around the globe by way of the creation and commercialization” of sovereign digital currencies, he mentioned.
Corbat didn’t disclose Citigroup’s authorities companions. Citigroup’s press workplace didn’t instantly return a request for touch upon the extent of the partnerships.
Cryptocurrencies can have a job to play even the age of CBDCs, Corbat mentioned Friday. He stopped in need of commenting on bitcoin particularly. However he mentioned that “a few of these currencies might be continued options, continued completely different sources of fee that folks can reap the benefits of based mostly on the underlying nature of what they’re” – a seeming reference to stablecoins.
The Friday disclosure reveals Citigroup as the newest private-sector firm lively in growing public sector digital currencies. Monetary companies companies Mastercard and Visa have each launched CBDC initiatives previously yr.
Three years in the past, Corbat predicted CBDCs would come up as a direct response to the risk posed by bitcoin. His financial institution has been researching digital currencies since no less than 2014.
