A growing proportion of central banks expect to issue a central bank digital currency within three to five years, but doing so will require the assistance of a variety of different private sector partners, OMFIF’s 2023 survey of central banks finds.

Central banks have, by and large, already enlisted the aid of technology companies and commercial banks in their CBDC design journeys, but payment service providers are set to take on a much more prominent role. Only 45% of central banks are currently working with payment service providers, but over 80% say they intend to.

However, only around 20% of banks say they expect to work with marketing and promotion providers. This is perhaps surprising given that low adoption was the biggest concern for respondents to the survey.

Central banks have not yet enlisted external help in the areas of interoperability, cross-border connectivity and offline payments but they say they intend to in the future.

For more details of central banks’ plans, download OMFIF’s Future of payments report, featuring a full breakdown of the survey results, as well as thought leadership on the growth of regional payment systems, the challenges of regulating a dynamic and global payments market and the place of stablecoins and cryptocurrencies in cross-border payments.