Brazilian central bank to launch digital real in 2024

The Central Bank of Brazil will launch a CBDC in 2024 after a closed pilot program with financial institutions. The regulator’s head, Roberto Campos Neto, said this, Reuters.

According to the official, the design of the digital real will provide banks with an incentive to tokenise assets to boost efficiency. He pointed to lower costs in settlements, audits and financing.

“If a CBDC is a tokenised deposit, it inherits all the regulation that applies to it,” Neto explained.

According to the central bank head, under such an interpretation the new payment instrument would not violate monetary policy or harm banks.

IMF highly valued such a design of the digital currency and suggested that other central banks study it, the official added.

Separately, Campos Neto forecast growth in the popularity of the Pix instant payment system. This will be possible as users gain access to cheaper loans with no fees.

Earlier in April, the head of the central bank promised to deploy the pilot project of the digital real in the second half of 2022.

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