Citi Survey Finds Sharp Decline in Institutional Demand for CBDC Settlements, Shift to Other Digital Payments

According to Citi's newly released Evolution of Securities Services whitepaper, a survey of nearly 500 institutions has revealed that demand for digital asset settlements using central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) has fallen sharply to 15 per cent from 52 per cent last year. In contrast, institutional interest in other digital payment methods such as non-bank stablecoins, tokenised deposits and tokenised money market funds has increased. Additionally, the survey noted that while North America leads in proof of concept (30%), there are no commercialisation projects yet, while Europe and Latin America have more actual projects in the pipeline. As traditional and digital assets converge, Citi expects automation, cloud infrastructure and solutions integrated with DLT networks to be the focus of future investments.