Clifford Chance

Central Bank Digital Currencies and competition laws: recognising the importance of competition laws in the CBDC ecosystem

3 March 2023

When designing and issuing Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), central banks will need to assess whether they are subject to and compliant with competition laws. Even where they are not subject to or infringing competition law, they will need to consider the impact of CBDCs on competition, whether as part of a statutory competition objective or to achieve other statutory objectives. If legislation were introduced to facilitate the creation of CBDCs, this could set out the applicability of competition law and a general competition objective in relation to the activities of the central bank.

The author is Daniel Schwarz, Senior Associate, Clifford Chance LLP.

This article was first published in Butterworth's Journal of International Banking and Financial Law as "Central Bank Digital Currencies and competition laws: recognising the importance of competition laws in the CBDC ecosystem" in [2023) 2 JIBFL 107-112 and is reproduced by agreement with the publishers.

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