Łukasz Hardt, Adviser to the Chair of the KNF, took part in ‘The Digital Euro and the rise of Central Bank Digital Currencies: Implications for financial stability and deposit insurers’ panel held during the conference of the Bank Guarantee Fund (BFG) and the International Association of Deposit Insurers (IADI) organised on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the BFG.

In his contribution, Łukasz Hardt assessed that due to the caps in payments that could be made with the use of CBDCs, the impact of CBDCs on financial stability would be limited. The introduction of CBDCs requires solving many technical issues, in particular in terms of mitigating operational risks related to the activity of entities that provide wallets  giving access to CBDCs. In his opinion, in the light of the current legislative proposals coming from the European Commission, the introduction of the digital euro by the European Central Bank, should not have a significant impact on the financial system in Poland. 

Łukasz Hardt also pointed out that regulators and supervisors needed to monitor links between the crypto-asset market and the traditional financial system to reduce the transfer of risk from the latter to the former. He emphasised additionally that bank deposits were guaranteed to a certain level, while investing in crypto-assets involved a higher risk. He pointed to the growing importance of stablecoins, which may affect the market of government-issued debt instruments, often serving as collateral for such crypto-assets.