The Central Bank of Honduras (BCH) has opened a consultation aimed at interested sectors, professionals and the general public to provide comments on the development and launch of a central bank digital currency, or CBDC, in the country.
Advice was opened on the official site of the organization, at the end of the Present your research on new payment options in front of the Innovation Table of Financial Innovation (MIF), a working environment in which companies from the public and private financial sector participate.
Accordingly reported The BCH on his Twitter account is the target Progress in modernizing the digital payment system in Honduras, a country in which cash payments have so far been the norm and the use of electronic money is still insignificant. This is due to the low financial inclusion of the majority of the population.
The need to create a CBDC is discussed in the study entitled “The future of money and payments in Honduras, which way to go?”.
The document was created by the BCHwith technical support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF)to analyze the alternatives that can be implemented in the Central American country. A support that makes sense considering that the international organization is currently keen to promote the creation of such a currency in Latin America.
The aim of the study is to evaluate solutions not only for create greater financial inclusion, but to solve existing problems in Honduras, such as the lack of interoperability and instant payments. Difficulties with cross-border payments are also cited.
In the case of Honduras, cross-border payments and especially remittances are of particular importance. The flow of family remittances is relevant to the economy (25.9% of GDP as of December 2021)… [Por ello] The creation of a BCH-managed bulk payment system that could execute payments instantly and allow for real-time money transfers should be explored.
Central Bank of Honduras
Therefore, based on the difficulties found in the country’s payment system, the alternative exists the BCH considers it more practical is the creation of a retail CBDC. In doing so, the Honduran organization “aligns itself with the view of the BIS (Bank for International Settlements), which points out that central bank money is the solid basis for the development of the monetary system.”
As part of the digital currency design process, the central bank also proposes legal changes (in the currency and central bank laws) to define the regulatory framework that allows the financial institution to be licensed for issuance of CBDC.
Regulatory changes are being made based on comments received during the public consultationthe results of which are submitted to a debate process at national level.
BCH rejects cryptocurrencies, but Hondurans prefer bitcoin
The study on digital payment systems prepared by the central bank also mentions cryptocurrencies and compares them with CBDCs as alternatives to modernize the Honduran system. But, depending on the organism Cryptocurrencies are not a solution. According to BCH, alternatives like crypto assets “receive low value while their strengths are reproducible in a modern, central bank-governed monetary system.”
“Their differences range from a lack of stability, accountability and integrity to high transaction costs and slow processing. “That makes them inadequate as anchors of the financial system,” the banknotes noted, thereby reaffirming their position versus Bitcoin (BTC). has manifested several years.
However, the bank admits this They plan to use the most useful aspects of this technology (cryptocurrencies). An idea that is also present in many other digital currency projects that are being developed in different parts of the world to offer a form of payment like that of BTC.
The aim is to develop digital currencies similar to Bitcoin, but under government control. Something that is not possible with the decentralized philosophy of the system created by Satoshi Nakamoto.
And although the BCH study does not specify which factors are being used, many of them are already being used spontaneously by Hondurans. fact obvious given the There is growing Bitcoin adoption in Honduras.
As CriptoNoticias reported, a small private town called Próspera — on the Honduran island of Roatán — has adopted BTC as legal tender since April 2022. Shortly after, Bitcoin Valley was launched, a Bitcoin citadel project based in the small mountain town of Santa Lucía in the center of the country.
The launch is also reflected in the increase in the number of cryptocurrency ATMs and the interest shown by the country’s top study house ever sincethe University of Hondurasteaches workshops on Bitcoin.