Brazil is preparing for the creation of a central bank digital currency by the year 2022. The head of the central bank of the Latin-American country, Roberto Campos Neto, stated that Brazil will acquire an instant payments system and a “credible” and “convertible international currency”.
He made these statements at a Bloomberg event, as reported by the Correio Brazilienese, a Brazilian news outlet.
Campos Neto also noted that CBDCs emerge in the financial systems that are determent to digitize, such as the Brazilian one. The country’s central bank is expected to put forward its instant payments system called PIX by November, and potentially to start an Open Banking initiative a few months after that.
To further their efforts in digitizing, the central bank has also proposed the creation of an intergovernmental task force. The task force has 12 members each of which is dedicated to assessing the impact of the introduction of digital currencies to the Brazilian economy.
The results of the group’s assessments are expected between 6 and 12 months.
Also, Campos Neto has been engaged in talks with Brazilian MPs regarding a legislative bill that the central bank proposed back in 2019 on the update of the Brazilian exchange system.
Although cryptocurrencies are ever more popular in Brazil, authorities have not yet legally regulated the mining, use, exchange, or circulation of cryptocurrencies. For the Brazilian government, cryptocurrencies are not a legal tender, and they do not have the same status as fiat currencies of foreign countries.
It is worth noting, however, that the steady rise of interest and engagement in digital money has caught the attention of the government, which has been collaborating with the central bank and other institutions to create a regulatory framework for them in the foreseeable future.
