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Banca d’Italia, the central bank of Italy, announced on December 5th that it has formalized a memorandum of understanding with South Korea’s central bank, the Bank of Korea, focusing on IT and payment systems.
The memorandum outlines a commitment to mutual knowledge-sharing and information exchange, specifically in the realm of information and communication technology (ICT). The collaboration will address ICT matters related to real-time settlement systems and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
Luigi Federico Signorini, the General Manager of Banca d’Italia, represented the Italian central bank and endorsed the agreement during the meeting.
While both countries have been actively exploring CBDCs over the past year, their approaches differ. Italy’s central bank has primarily concentrated on interoperability in its solutions for settling transactions based on distributed ledger technology (DLT) through hash-linked contracts. In contrast, South Korea initiated a pilot of its CBDC infrastructure technology in October, involving both private banks and public institutions with technical support from the Bank for International Settlements.
South Korea also announced plans to invite 100,000 citizens to participate in testing its CBDC starting in 2024.
Despite global momentum toward CBDC implementation, there is continued resistance to digital currencies. Notably, a German politician expressed staunch opposition to the European Union’s digital euro, considering CBDCs as an invasion of privacy. Similarly, in the United States, various public figures have voiced skepticism about the country’s own CBDC, with podcaster Joe Rogan stating that CBDCs would signify “checkmate” and “game over.”
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