Quoting a tweet by the Mexican Government authorities on December 30, 2021, Reuters reported that Mexico’s central bank will have its digital currency by 2024. As per the report, the Mexican monetary authority, known locally as Banxico, has not confirmed anything about the development.
“Banxico reports that it will have its own digital currency in circulation by 2024,” the Mexican government wrote late on December 29, Wednesday on its official Twitter account.
The post said the central bank “considers that these new technologies and the latest payment infrastructure are very important as valuable options to advance financial inclusion in the country.”
But a senior central bank source, who requested anonymity, told Reuters on Thursday that the government announcement was “not official.”
Mexico’s central bank is legally independent of the government.
Neither Banxico nor the Mexican government immediately replied to requests for comment.
In a report published on December 17, Banxico said, “It is working on the study and development of a platform aimed at the implementation of a digital currency,” but it gave no details on timing.
“The project has among its objectives the opening of accounts for the registration of a digital currency for both banked and unbanked people, thereby contributing to financial inclusion,” the report added.
Meanwhile, yahoo finance reported that in a latest video conference organized by S&P, Banxico’s deputy governor, Jonathan Heath said that Banxico is planning to have its CBDC in place “by the end of 2024, at the latest.” The news story sites a Mexican publication El CEO as its source.
“We’re going to have the use of paper money as the preponderant payment domestically for a long time, so we don’t want to be absent from these technological advances,” Heath added.
On Dec. 2, Banxico’s governor, Victoria Rodriguez Ceja, said that the monetary authority was analyzing the launch of a CBDC.
“Authorities at the international level, given the interest that these virtual assets and their evolutions have awakened, have recognized the need and the potential to extend the functionalities of legal tender through the potential implementation of digital currencies issued by the Central Bank,” she said, according to a report by Independent en Español.
In June, Arturo Herrera, Mexico’s finance minister, said cryptocurrencies aren’t legal tender assets nor currencies within the country’s current regulatory framework. One month later, Mexico’s Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) accused 12 crypto exchanges of not complying with its reporting requirements.
Mexico joins Brazil and Peru as Latin American countries working on the development of CBDCs.
Several central banks worldwide are exploring the launch of digital currencies, concerned that cryptocurrencies like bitcoin could weaken government control of monetary policy.
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