Collapsing retail and wholesale for a universal CBDC

Discussions around central bank digital currencies typically begin with the intended use case. If the CBDC is for retail use, then all the subsequent discussions focus on retail, and the reverse is true for wholesale. The two are treated as separate discussions. Abbas Albasha, senior strategy consultant at Giesecke+Devrient joins Lewis McLellan, head of content at OMFIF’s Digital Monetary Institute, to discuss why this approach is too restrictive, pointing out that a single CBDC system can be designed to meet both retail and wholesale needs flexibly without need for two separate systems.

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Collapsing retail and wholesale for a universal CBDC is an episode from The OMFIF Podcast by OMFIF.

This episode is 29:47 long.

This episode was published on Feb 6, 2026.

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