RIEB Discussion Paper Series No.2020-27

Title

On Possible Measures and Processes to Issue Digital Common Currency in ASEAN + 3 Including Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

Following the previous paper by Inui, Takahashi, and Ishida (2020), this paper discusses possible measures and processes of Asia (ASEAN+3) digital common currency (ADCC) issued by central banks in ASEAN+3 countries/economies backed by the ADCC denominated bonds issued by an international organization (such as AMRO). This paper also tries to explain authors' views on some possible challenges which need to be solved from practical perspective such as anonymity, counterfeit, AML/CFT, etc. as well as weight of local currencies for the basket currency ACU which could be used as a currency unit for ADCC (AMRO coin for example). In recent years, central banks in many countries are interested in developing the individual digital currencies as their legal tenders. Also, considering the trend of borderless economy, a borderless (cross-border) currency will naturally be focused on sooner or later to meet such an economic trend. Because of the development of digital technologies, it is getting easier to issue and circulate such a borderless currency in a digital form. This paper is trying to propose an idea to meet such a trend.

Keywords

Digital currency; Asia common currency; Anonymity; AML/CFT

JEL Classification

E42, F33, F36

Inquiries

Taiji INUI
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) advisor for Central Bank of Myanmar
Asian Development Bank (ADB) consultant for Cross-border Settlement Infrastructure Forum (CSIF)

Wataru TAKAHASHI
Faculty of Economics, Osaka University of Economics
Research Fellow, RIEB, Kobe University
E-mail: wtaka@osaka-ue.ac.jp

Mamoru ISHIDA
Director, Itochu Corporation