On Thursday, Standard Bank’s chief executive Sim Tshabalala expressed broad support for central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) but argued that a retail option could result in unfair competition.
South Africa’s Standard Bank is the continent’s biggest and most blockchain-friendly banking group, successfully trialing a stablecoin with Korea’s Shinhanbank in 2021. Yet speaking at the Standard Bank Africa Central Banking Conference yesterday, Mr. Tshabalala voiced his concerns about what a retail CBDC could mean for competition, according to local news outlet ITWeb.
“The key question is whether the retail banking arm of the public sector is subject to the same kinds and levels of regulation as its private sector competitors,” he said. “If so, then all is well. If not, then calling it a CBDC rather than a state-owned retail bank does nothing to mitigate the risk and moral hazards that an unfairly regulated institution could introduce into the financial system.”
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