I will highlight today three dimensions to consider, among many others, in case the introduction of CBDC is decided: liquidity configuration, policy rates and access to central bank balance sheet. 1. First potential impact: the launch of CBDCs could affect monetary implementation through a change in the liquidity situation of the banking system. - While the design of the CBDC should ensure that any risk of sudden large shifts from bank deposits to CBDC would be avoided, it could still substitute a limited part of retail deposits, through an increase of what we call in central banking jargon “autonomous factors”, i.e. an item not linked to monetary policy but affecting the liquidity situation of the banking system. - This could in turn imply that the central bank – depending on its preferred liquidity position – provides additional liquidity through refinancing operations and/or asset purchases. In case of collateralized refinancing operations, collateral availability would also need to be checked to accommodate the operations. While it is very much a speculative thought at this stage, liquidity-providing or liquidityabsorbing operations would need to remain available at any time to ensure that central banks can choose to operate in the monetary policy implementation framework they choose, even in the case of the launch of a CBDC. 2. Second: the chosen remuneration scheme, as well as possible limits, are key parameters for the usage of CBDC that also need to be assessed for the monetary policy framework.
Our CBDC experiments, on which I will elaborate in a few minutes, also led us to develop our own permissioned blockchain (called DL3S- Distributed Ledger for Securities Settlement System) in collaboration with an IT provider. We have also drawn on artificial intelligence for various uses, such as a new forex trading tool and supervisory tools. The question that now attracts public attention is whether central banks’ investigation phases will lead to the development of CBDCs. Almost all of that attention is focused on retail CBDCs. At the same time, we can sometimes hear, and not only from commercial banks, that they are “a solution in search of a problem”. iii In my view, this phrase simply misses the point. What we are currently doing is keeping our eyes and minds open on this new way of making “public money” available. In Europe, we are halfway through our  Page 4 sur 5 investigation phase: the Eurosystem will make its decision by the end of 2023, before a potential launch in 2026 or 2027. I am sure President Christine Lagarde will be able to shed some light on the project. Beyond purely technical considerations, a retail CBDC could play an anchor role in the digital world, similar to the role played by banknotes in the physical world,iv and hence preserve the accessibility and usability of central bank money.