Mexican Central Bank aims to release centralized digital currency by 2024
The Mexican government has confirmed on Twitter that the Mexican Central Bank will start circulating a digital currency in 2024. The centralized digital currency should promote financial inclusion in the Central American country, according to the government.
According to estimates by the deputy governor of the Mexican Central Bank, Jonathan Heath, the central currency should start circulating by the end of 2024. According to the man, the centralized digital currency would not replace the widely used Mexican coins and banknotes in the short term because Mexico has too many informal habits around money, he says. In El Ceo, Mexico, Heath refers to financial institutions that he believes will play “a crucial role” in promoting state-of-the-art financial infrastructure, such as a digital currency.
Mexico is far from the only country working on a digital centralized currency. At the beginning of this year, the European Central Bank, among others, opened an internet consultation on the development of the digital Euro and according to sources, China is also working diligently on the digital Yuan. Japan wants to carry out a few tests with the digital Japanese Yen in 2022 in order to put it into circulation from the second half of the year. The West African country of Nigeria has had its own digital currency, the eNaira, since October this year. Since 2017, the Bahamas island group has been able to pay with the local digital currency, the Sand Dollar.