Description

About the Seminar

Financial systems are deeply affected by digitalization, and so are national currencies. Continuously reinvented through history, does money in its current form have its days numbered? This question arises not only from the longstanding theoretical discussion of alternatives to physical cash, but also from a general trend of disintermediation impacting financial markets, central banks and the privacy of individuals. This talk will discuss Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and how they are being conceived around some regions of the globe up to this point. The main goal is to address the questions of what Central Bank Digital Currencies are, what challenges they face and how they are being concretely designed in different regions insofar. As to the first question, it can be stated that a CBDC is national currency in digital form, but what does it aim at and what are its functions? From this conceptual and functional perspective, how would citizens and the intermediated financial sector possibly be affected? And, finally, from an empirical point of view, how are regions outlining CBDCs not only in central capitalist countries, but also on the economic periphery of the world?

About the Speaker

Gabriel Lochagin is Professor of Economic Law and Public Finance at the Faculty of Law of the University of Sao Paulo (USP), in Ribeirão Preto, Brazil, since 2016. He is also Adjunct General Controller of the University and Deputy Head of the Department of Public Law. Before this position as Professor, he worked as a lawyer in both private and public sectors, and was also a Visiting Researcher at the Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany.