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Tap and Pray, perhaps :-) 

Augustin is spot on with his request. I have argued for a number of years that to improve Global Financial Stability needs a coordinated plan against a new model, not a domestic rehash of what we already have. Through coordinated regulatory action using modern and robust global infrastructure, that incidentally is already built, the global movement of money between commercial and central banks can be streamlined. The result would significantly improve every economy on the planet and, in my mind a very worthy prize. 

This result is not surprising. Whenever you innovate you get those that embrace and those that fear the impact. Part of the issue with a mixture of CBDC variants is that it needs a clear global demonstration of how a particular, say wCBDC could work. This would demonstrate its benefits, risks and issues to banks and regulators alike. The corollary is that we all now accept Swift, and the global interoperability of the Card schemes, but I wonder if a poll like this had been undertaken when the idea was proposed, what the results would have been? Anyone remember traveller or eurocheques ? Right for the time and now obsolete ? 

The real and immediate opportunity for CBDC is in the interbank wholesale market. Interoperability and regulated party-only ownership of wCBDC substantially removes the risk of bank insolvency and resolution. Allowing banks to own multi-jurisdictional wCBDC could reduce global financial friction. After all, Banks can own FIAT today, in any country they choose.  Perhaps an interim option to encourage and demonstrate the benefits of a global wCBDC is now required?  

Wholesale CBDC transform transactional speed and remove settlement risk completely from both cross border and domestic payment flows. Whilst there are some "operational challenges" this pale into insignificance when compared to the benefits of reducing the existing $15 trillion dollars of annual financial friction that exists in the current systems. In a time of global economic crisis, their benefits would be seen immediately.

From Amazon today 

"The expected change regarding the use of Visa credit cards on Amazon.co.uk will no longer take place on January 19. We are working closely with Visa on a potential solution that will enable customers to continue using their Visa credit cards on Amazon.co.uk. 

Should we make any changes related to Visa credit cards, we will give you advance notice. Until then, you can continue to use Visa credit cards, debit cards, Mastercard, American Express, and Eurocard as you do today.

Thank you for being an Amazon customer." 

I have been asking for this change for years, even explaining to Mark Carkey personally in his office at the Bank of England the need for the UK to take a leadership role in 24x7x365 RTP, allowing us to catch up with systems in India and Australia.

The fastest way for the global economies to recover from the impacts of the Covid 19 pandemic is to reduce the $15TRN a year costs of financial friction. By accelerating wholesale interbank money flow, economies will perform more efficiently, and domestic employment and growth will flourish.

At RTGS.global we are now working to operate a global pilot with regulators and prudential banks that not only demonstrates this immediate efficiency but also illustrates how interbank risks can be substantially reduced. 

@ Christopher, we can deploy this capability for central banks and commercial banks on our network next year... Banks can however start testing today. 

The wholesale CBDC opportunity is a massive win for Regulators and Banks alike. They substantially reduce or remove credit risk, the cause of the last Global Financial crisis. In addition, they potentially change RWA assets to HQLA assets, reducing bank capital costs. In my view, the immediate opportunity is to fix the wholesale markets, and that goes a long way to reducing the $15Trn of financial friction costs that we (at RTGS.global) have been exposing for the past 2 years.

Mastercard has moved Jersey, in the Channel Island into Europe for international interchange fees. Visa thankfully still regards Jersey as part of the UK. Geographically the island hasn't moved, and I'm not sure with the current fishing dispute that the Freanch wish to adopt us. This however highlights the fact that interchange has already become a sales tax, and not a value added service as originally intended.