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The purpose of this paper is to gain some insight into central bank digital currency research by reviewing the recent advances in central bank digital currency (CBDC) research in a way that would help researchers, policy makers and practitioners to take a closer look at CBDC.

The paper uses a systematic literature review methodology.

The review shows a general consensus that a CBDC is a liability of the central bank and it has cash-like attributes. The review also presents the motivation and benefits of issuing a CBDC such as the need to increase financial inclusion, the need to improve the conduct of monetary policy and to foster efficient digital payments. The review also shows that many central banks are researching the potential to issue CBDCs due to its many benefits. However, a number of studies have called for caution against over-optimism about the potential benefits of CBDC due to the limiting nature of CBDC design and its inability to meet multiple competing goals. Suggested areas for future research are identified such as the need to find the optimal CBDC design that meets all competing objectives, the need for empirical evidence on the effect of CBDC on the cost of credit and financial stability, and the need to find a balance between limiting the CBDC holdings of users and allowing users to hold as much CBDC as they want, and there is a need to undertake country-specific and regional case studies of CBDC design.

This review paper offers new areas for further research in central bank digital currencies.

Purpose: This chapter aims to present the arguments for and against central bank digital currency (CBDC) increasing financial inclusion. Financial inclusion is one of the many reasons for issuing a CBDC.

Need for the study: There is a need to offer a critical perspective on the proposed financial inclusion benefits of CBDC. This is the first paper to present arguments supporting and statement against CBDC for financial inclusion.

Method: This chapter uses discourse analysis methodology to identify the arguments about CBDC promoting financial inclusion

Findings: The arguments in support of CBDC increasing financial inclusion are that CBDCs can digitise value chains, CBDCs can improve access to digital financial services, CBDCs can help to enlarge the digital economy, CBDCs can enhance the efficiency of digital payments, CBDCs can be used offline when there is no internet coverage, and CBDCs have low transaction costs. Some criticisms are that CBDC may not prioritise financial inclusion, a high price to purchase digital devices for holding a CBDC, non-interest-bearing CBDCs, the strong preference for cash over digital currency, the burdensome identification and regulatory requirements, and the imposition of transaction costs.

Implications: Overall, the arguments presented in this chapter show that there is still disagreement over whether a central bank’s digital currency can increase financial inclusion. Nevertheless, in the light of recent events, many central banks are determined to issue a CBDC for many reasons. Even though CBDCs do not achieve the intended financial inclusion objective, at least the other goals for publishing a CBDC will be performed, such as a significant reduction in cash management costs and the effective conduct of monetary policy.

Technology has changed the future of money. The need to foster innovation in banking has been instigated by a shift from traditional finance provided by incumbents to fintech companies, such as challenger banks and decentralized platforms, offering new forms of money and payments services. The Bank of England has responded to this shift with the exploration of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), which in its retail form, would give the public the opportunity for the first time to directly hold state central bank money. This CBDC proposal emerges in a landscape where private money such as cryptocurrencies are increasing in capacity of coins and in trading volume; in a crypto economy with an expanding market capital. This competition opens the possibilities to reform banking to adapt to new payments platforms such as blockchains with advanced features such as smart contracts. The proposed design of a CBDC can either compete or complement such innovations which is evaluated in this review chapter. The author argues that the plethora of public and private currencies on the market, once reached legal maturity in terms of governance, can provide the element of choice to consumers in an open, innovative, and competitive free market. The author put forward that the Bank of England must act to introduce a CBDC that is interoperable with innovative payment platforms including blockchains, accompanied by a user centric design, to participate in the ever adapting fintech economy.

Purpose: The purpose of this chapter is to offer a discussion on the role played by Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in enhancing financial inclusion. The central interest of the study is to place CBDC on the financial inclusion landscape and provide insights on potential opportunities and barriers in making CBDC a strong building block of financial inclusion, as well as the digital financial system.

Design/methodology/approach: This chapter is a conceptual work that builds on relevant literature. This study identifies and suggests potential aspects that can help in the adoption of CBDC as a tool for financial inclusion.

Findings: This chapter analyses opportunities, barriers, and concerns for CBDC in the context of financial inclusion and discusses how critical functions of blockchain technology can lead to the acceptance and adoption of CBDC. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated how CBDC can pave the way for financial inclusion and benefit the existing financial system taking more people from financial exclusion towards financial inclusion.

Originality/value: This is evident that CBDCs and financial inclusion need to be intertwined to support upcoming technological transformations happening in the digital financial ecosystem. Therefore, CBDCs must be viewed from varying lenses to understand the relevance of including CBDCs in the financial system can be expanded. Further, repercussions from the given framework are suggested.

Purpose: Central bank digital currency (CBDC) is non-physical or the digital equivalent of physical money issued by a central bank. Nigeria became the first African country to issue a CBDC, popularly known as the eNaira. This chapter highlights the redesign features that eNaira should possess to offer payment solutions and macroeconomic stability effectively.

Methodology: The chapter used discourse analysis to highlight the features the eNaira should possess.

Findings: The chapter suggests that the eNaira should have an interest-bearing status, have enhanced security features, and offer zero transaction costs on eNaira transactions. These are design features which the eNaira presently lacks.

Originality: This chapter is the first to suggest redesign features for an already issued CBDC. It is also the first to highlight the design features of a CBDC in the African continent.

This paper aims to investigate the determinants of global interest in central bank digital currency (CBDC). It assessed whether global interest in sustainable development and cryptocurrency are determinants of global interest in CBDC.

Google Trends data were analyzed using two-stage least square regression estimation.

There is a significant positive relationship between global interest in sustainable development and global interest in CBDC. There is a significant positive relationship between global interest in cryptocurrency and global interest in the Nigeria eNaira CBDC. There is a significant negative relationship between global interest in CBDC and global interest in the eNaira CBDC. There is a significant positive relationship between global interest in CBDC and global interest in the China eCNY. There is a significant negative relationship between global interest in cryptocurrency and global interest in the Sand Dollar and DCash.

The literature has not empirically examined whether global interest in sustainable development and cryptocurrency are factors motivating global interest in CBDC. This study fills a gap in the literature by investigating whether global interest in sustainable development and cryptocurrency are factors motivating global interest in CBDC.

The purpose of this study is to discuss the role of central bank digital currency (CBDC), Fintech and cryptocurrency for financial inclusion and financial stability.

This study used critical discourse analysis to identify the benefits and risks of CBDC, Fintech and cryptocurrency for financial inclusion and financial stability.

Fintech, CBDC and cryptocurrency can increase financial inclusion by providing an alternative channel through which unbanked adults can access formal financial services. CBDC and Fintech services have the potential to preserve financial stability, while cryptocurrency presents financial stability risks that can be mitigated through effective regulation. This paper also identified some problems of CBDC, Fintech and cryptocurrency for financial inclusion and financial stability. This paper offered some insight about the future of financial inclusion and the future of financial stability.

Although CBDC, Fintech or cryptocurrency can extend financial services to unbanked adults and offer cost-efficient advantages, there are risk considerations that need to be taken into account when using CBDC, Fintech and cryptocurrency to increase financial inclusion and to preserve financial stability.

The literature has not identified the combined role of CBDC, Fintech and cryptocurrency for financial inclusion and financial stability. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper is the first paper to assess the combined role of CBDC, Fintech and cryptocurrency for financial inclusion and financial stability.

Central banks from more than 100 countries, representing 95% of the global financial output, are studying Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). CBDCs can potentially enable safe, efficient and inexpensive cross-border and cross-currency payments in today's interconnected financial system. However, a critical factor influencing their expansion is cross-border interoperability. Therefore, there is a high demand from central banks, researchers, computer scientists, policy- and decision-makers to explore this topic further. Its better understanding will improve information management, enhance the decision-making process, and result in the redesign of central banks' processes and products (digital currencies).

The authors investigate this novel and timely topic by conducting a Multivocal Systematic Literature Review (MSLR) on CBDCs cross-border interoperability. Additionally, the authors collect and analyze empirical data from various online resources such as CBDC trackers.

The authors conclude that although the academic literature on CBDC cross-border interoperability is very limited, valuable documents published by central banks and other entities discuss this issue and provide valuable insights. The authors paid particular attention to the reports published by the Bank of International Settlement (BIS) as it proposes three different models for CBDC cross-border interoperability. The study research reveals that most CBDC cross-border interoperability projects run by several central banks and other organizations explore these three BIS models. For this research, the authors performed an in-depth study of CBDC cross-border interoperability cases to investigate all three BIS models. The findings illustrate that although technical interoperability is feasible, plenty of work needs to be done in terms of standards and interfaces. In addition, other non-technical interoperability areas need to be explored and addressed, as there are concerns related to legal issues, regulations, jurisdictional boundaries, policy challenges and governance.

Research on CBDCs is progressing quickly, so, despite the authors’ use of an MSLR to identify the state-of-the-art, interested parties should be aware that new information is prone to appear imminently. Hence, this study work should be understood as a basis to build upon. Also, although the authors have included major academic databases in this study search, there is the possibility that a few papers may have been published in outlets that the authors have not covered. Finally, since the search in the grey literature returned thousands of hits, the authors had to define a stopping criterion for the documents to analyze.

The authors provide insights on the current state of CBDC cross-border interoperability, which is valuable to policy- and decision-makers currently assessing the situation and deciding on avenues to pursue.

The authors provide an integrated and critical view of the developments of CBDC cross-border interoperability, considering not only available academic literature but also fundamental documents from key institutions such as central banks and related organizations.

We aim to conduct a bibliometric analysis that explores and maps quantitative data of the emerging field of central bank digital currencies in science and its implications in practice. We seek to clarify the underlying research structures and streams of the new phenomena, and our motivation is the rising number of pilots between governments seeking to implement different types of central bank digital currency.

We designed the unique set of keywords to explore ongoing projects on central bank digital currencies and the evolution of scientific thought on the topic. We conducted a descriptive analysis and an evaluating bibliometric analysis on the timeline from 2018 to April 18, 2023 and investigated 76 articles in the Web of Science database and 152 articles in the Scopus database using VOSviewer.

We highlight three main directions of discourse on central bank digital currencies in economics using authors keyword analysis, that are: (1) cash, (2) monetary policy and (3) financial stability. We conducted a map-based text analysis of the abstracts and identified the following main streams of discussion in the field: (1) policy-related research on financial systems, (2) a comprehensive review of the design and features of central bank digital currencies and (3) research on the impact of central bank digital currencies on the banking system.

The unique set of keywords allows us to continue the discourse on central bank digital currencies including implications of ongoing governmental projects on the topic and provide directions for future research. We brought the focus on the impact of central bank digital currencies on the banking sector and the new possible order for cash, deposits and payments.

The authors investigate household acceptance of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) by drawing on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology and institutional trust theory.

The authors build a research model including six hypotheses and quantitatively analyze it using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and importance–performance map analysis (IPMA) based on 282 answers to a survey questionnaire.

The continuous adoption of CBDCs by households is highly probable and is fostered by its expected high performance, the social recommendations and the existence of facilitating conditions. Nevertheless, institutions' efforts to propose a flexible and understandable currency can benefit its adoption only if these institutions also strive to build households' trust in the currency's system.

The authors provide a full review of the emerging literature on CBDCs and suggest that digital currency offerings can be divided into centralized, semi-centralized and de-centralized control in a meaningful taxonomy. The authors also complement extant studies on CBDCs that mostly apprehend its operational challenges by focusing on the customer side and provide implications to the launching of CBDCs by uncovering the customer-specific determinants of their adoption.