Christine Lagarde: Without CBDCs, Central Banks Risk Obsolescence and Losing Control

Christine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank, admits that without CBDCs, central bankers risk becoming obsolete.

"If we are not involved in experimenting, in innovating, in terms of digital central bank money, we risk losing the role of anchor that we have played for many, many decades."

"We have historical examples of periods where the central bank monetary anchor was not there... That certainly was the case at the time of the free banking in the 19th century. Do we want to go back to those days? Probably not. I would say certainly not from our vantage point."