“Choice in Currency: a Way to Stop Inflation”, IEA Occasional Paper 48, 1976. BIS Review 66/1999  2  2. Summary presentation and assessment of Hayek’s proposal for competing currencies  The proposal put forward by Hayek, that is, full competition between private issuers of currency, is an extremely interesting concept.
It relates to the debate on the viability of unregulated banking and to the literature on the historical experience with free banking.6 The basic idea seems to be as follows: creating the possibility of banks issuing currency would open the way to competition. Banks could issue non-interest-bearing certificates and open cheque accounts on the basis of their own distinct registered trade mark.