Working Paper #2: The Central Bank of the Future

This paper is intended to distill the discussion of the June 2019 Central Bank of the Future Roundtable held at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. The goal of the Roundtable was to consider new ideas that could better facilitate Central Bank innovation to support financial inclusion. With the increasing prevalence of digital currencies (fiat and non-fiat), financial data, digital payments, and technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, it is important for Central Banks to consider their role in mitigating threats to consumer protection, financial inclusion, and the global economy while also leveraging and promoting technology to foster financial and economic inclusion. This paper presents an overview of the discussion relating to these goals. Attendees participated in the conversation under the Chatham House Rule. Therefore, the ideas outlined below are not attributed or attributable to any one participant. The sections below represent short summaries of ideas presented during the conversation. The views expressed in this paper are not those of the authors. Rather, the authors of this paper have synthesized and reordered the conversation in order to summarize the discussion among the Roundtable participants.