OTTAWA, Canada—Officials with the Department of Finance Canada believe there could be sweeping implications for the economy if the Bank of Canada ever issued its own cryptocurrency, according to internal government documents.
The Bank of Canada said it has spent years looking at whether to introduce a digital currency, but so far hasn’t seen an immediate need to issue one, Vancouver Island Free Daily reported.
The documents also show the central bank held a series of meetings with federal officials over the course of 2020 to gauge the implications of a “digital loonie” on departments and agencies, Vancouver Island Free Daily said. The loonie is the informal term used for the Canadian $1 coin.
“Large swaths of the documents obtained by The Canadian Press under the access-to-information law have been blacked out because the department says they contain sensitive government information,” the Vancouver Island Free Daily stated. “But what remains suggest some federal concerns about a central bank digital currency, with departments wanting to provide more input before a decision is made.”
Faster Pace
The Bank of Canada has upped the pace of its work on a digital currency, mirroring efforts by counterparts in other countries as the COVID-19 pandemic accelerates the transition to a digital economy.
The bank only plans to issue a digital currency if the use of physical bills for transactions plummets and one or more private cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, become widely used in Canada, Vancouver Island Free Daily said.