Governor of the Sveriges Riksbank urges Parliament to grant the digital krona the status of legal tender

The Riksbank published a report on the future of money and payments. In it, the regulator’s head Stefan Ingves urged changes to the law to place the digital krona on a par with the cash and the cashless forms of the national currency as legal tender.

Future Money and Payments by ForkLog on Scribd

Ingves noted that Sweden’s population is the fastest in the world to move away from cash in favour of digital payments. This provides a push for the central bank to hurry with issuing a national digital currency (CBDC).

“The Bank of Sweden has not yet taken an official decision to issue the digital krona. A CBDC issuance requires a legal basis and political backing,” he said.

The head of the Riksbank stressed that only under these conditions can the transition to a digital future avoid risks and potential losses.

To continue the central bank’s experiment with the digital krona, Ingves outlined the following conditions:

• Adequate cash on hand to cover outages of electronic systems.
• National government-issued identity documents with electronic identification.
• The ability to perform instant payments in Swedish kronor 24/7.
• The ability to perform instant cross-border payments in various currencies 24/7.

In February, the Riksbank announced the start of testing of the electronic krona. The regulator’s partner, consulting firm Accenture, began developing the CBDC platform in December 2019.

Plans by the Bank of Sweden to launch its own digital currency were first reported back in 2016.

In October, the Riksbank, together with the central banks of six other countries and the Bank for International Settlements, released a special report outlining the foundational principles and key characteristics of CBDC.

Follow ForkLog news on Twitter!