The National Bank of Ukraine is exploring the possibility of using retail digital currencies from central banks, or CBDCs, for cross-border operations, the NBU said. As the central bank explained, wholesale settlements between financial institutions are usually for large amounts, such as payments for securities settlements, foreign currency, and interbank settlements.
The National Bank has not conducted thorough research on wholesale CBDCs, as it is studying the possibility of using retail CBDCs for cross-border transactions since the retail form of the central bank’s digital currency can potentially be used by Ukrainians in the future. This is one of the areas of research in the E-Hryvnia project (the NBU’s digital money) to determine the need to introduce Ukraine’s own retail CBDC – the e-Hryvnia.
Note that Atlantic Council experts run a CBDC tracker around the world. Therefore, it is known that 130 countries are currently studying the prospects of creating digital currencies for their central banks.