Upon completion of this program, participants will be able to:

• Define CBDC and distinguish between retail, wholesale, and token-based vs. account-based designs.
• Analyze the key motivations for and against CBDC issuance (e.g., payment efficiency, financial stability).
• Evaluate the potential impact of a CBDC on commercial banks and monetary policy implementation.
• Discuss the crucial design choices related to privacy, intermediation, interest-bearing status, and limits.
• Understand the technological considerations, including Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) and security.
• Assess the implications of CBDC on cross-border payments and international monetary systems.
• Examine the legal, governance, and data security challenges of operating a CBDC system.
• Compare and contrast global CBDC projects (e.g., e-CNY, Digital Euro) and their findings.

• Central Bank Senior Management and Policy Makers
• Payment System Strategists and Technologists
• Commercial Bank Treasury and Retail Payments Innovation Teams
• Financial Regulators and Supervisors
• FinTech and Blockchain Developers
• Academics and Economists focusing on Digital Currencies

Design challenge group project (drafting a CBDC blueprint), Case studies of global CBDC pilots, Policy debates on privacy vs. AML, Technical deep dives into DLT/Centralized architectures, Simulation of CBDC impact on bank funding, Legal framework analysis.

Unit 1: The CBDC Concept and Rationale

• Defining central bank money, commercial bank money, and their digital counterparts.
• Distinguishing between CBDC, stablecoins, and cryptocurrencies.
• The concept of retail (general purpose) vs. wholesale (interbank) CBDC.
• Key reasons for central bank exploration (e.g., digitalization, decline of cash, foreign competition).

• The intermediated model ("two-tier") vs. the direct model.
• Token-based (DLT) vs. account-based (centralized ledger) architectures.
• Interest-bearing vs. non-interest-bearing CBDC and the implications for monetary policy.
• Privacy considerations: balancing anonymity with anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CTF).

Unit 2: Economic and Financial Stability Implications

• Impact of CBDC on the central bank's control over short-term interest rates.
• Potential for **disintermediation** of commercial banks and its mitigation (e.g., holding limits).
• CBDC as a tool for overcoming the Effective Lower Bound (ELB) through negative rates.
• The role of CBDC in managing payment system liquidity and efficiency.

• Risk of **"digital bank runs"** and the flight to safety from commercial bank deposits to CBDC.
• Mitigation strategies: remunerated CBDC and limits on individual holdings.
• Implications for systemic risk and the provision of central bank lending.
• CBDC and its potential role in strengthening the financial safety net.

Unit 3: Technology, Legal, and Cross-Border

• Analysis of DLT, centralized, and hybrid architectures for CBDC infrastructure.
• Key security challenges: cybersecurity, ledger integrity, and resilience.
• Offline functionality and the need for high transaction throughput.
• Interoperability with existing payment rails and private sector innovations.

• The legal basis for CBDC issuance and its status as legal tender.
• Governance models: roles of the central bank, government, and private sector providers.
• CBDC's potential for improving cross-border payments (e.g., "Project Dunbar" and "Project Icebreaker").
• Implications for the international role of currencies and geopolitical competition.

Unit 4: Global CBDC Projects and Future Outlook

• In-depth study of specific retail CBDC pilots (e.g., Nigeria, Jamaica, China).
• Analysis of wholesale CBDC projects and their focus on tokenized settlement (e.g., Project Ubin).
• Lessons learned and key findings from global proof-of-concept initiatives.
• The current state of play in major economic blocs (e.g., Eurozone, US).