Sweden’s Central Bank Releases 98-Page ‘Economic Review’ Devoted to CBDC

Sveriges Riksbank, Sweden’s central bank, took a 98-page deep dive into central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, referencing the country’s own such asset — the e-krona. 

“The second issue of Sveriges Riksbank Economic Review in 2020 has a special theme, namely central bank digital currencies (CBDC) and the e-krona,” Riksbank’s June 18, 2020 report said in an initial note to readers. 

Sweden’s interest is not new

In December 2019, Sweden unveiled intentions for a pilot program around its e-krona, in collaboration with Fortune Global 500 company Accenture.

The new report from the country’s central bank referred to its 2018 Economic Review detailing the e-krona and its progress. “Riksbank has since continued to delve into various aspects of CBDC, both from an analytical and a practical perspective,” the 2020 report said. “Some of this work is summarized in this issue.” 

The new edition addresses a number of CBDC aspects

Riksbank’s 2020 Economic Review includes reasoning behind a Swedish CBDC, listing monetary issues in the country, as well as other drivers. 

The report also covered other points of consideration, including inquiry on such a currency’s necessity, competition and other aspects. 

The review only includes one direct reference of blockchain, seen in a footnote on page 89, which reads:

“An open DLT network is associated to several disadvantages; every transaction must be verified by every participant (cf. blockchain) in a time and resource consuming manner. The responsibility for the Riksbank regarding AML, KYC & CTF could be indefinite. Fraud and cyber-attacks are hard to prevent in an open network.”

The report does, however, mention distributed ledger technology, or DLT, several times. 

After coronavirus measures took flight in March, the U.S. proposed a digital dollar, although such a dollar did not include blockchain or DLT. 

Cointelegraph reached out to Riksbank for additional details, but received no response as of press time. This article will be updated accordingly should a response come in.