ESCB Legal conference 2022 – Day one | Panel three

Towards legal interoperability of retail central bank digital currencies:
a comparative law perspective.

In the context of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), interoperability is an important technical functionality that merits consideration from the legal perspective. The panel will discuss interoperability largely in the retail CBDC context and, based on lessons from the past, will attempt to provide conjectures about the future. The discussion will cover both the domestic context (exchangeability between CBDCs and cash; interoperability between intermediaries’ platforms) and the international context (exchangeability between CBDCs and cash; interoperability between CBDCs). The panel will also touch upon the different civil law treatment of the two CBDC systems (account based/claim and token-based/quasi in rem) as well as the ramifications of that treatment for legal interoperability.

Chair:
– Otto Heinz, Head of Division, Legal Services, European Central Bank

Panellists:
– Panagiotis Papapaschalis, Senior Lead Legal Counsel, Legal Services, European Central Bank
– Ross Leckow, Acting Head of BIS Innovation Hub – Strategy and Legal at Bank for International Settlements, BIS
– Jess Cheng, Senior Counsel, Federal Reserve Board
– Seraina Gruenewald, Professor European and Comparative Financial Law, Radboud University

Discussion with questions from the audience