Event Details
SMU Yong Pung How School of Law hosted Professor Ruth Plato-Shinar, Director of The Center for Banking Law and Financial Regulation at Netanya Academic College, for a research seminar titled Institutional Trust & the Adoption of Digital Money: What Asia Can Learn from a Non-Asian Experiment. This seminar was chaired by Asst Prof Nydia Remolina, Deputy Director of the SMU Centre for Commercial Law in Asia (CCLA), and co-organised by the SMU Centre for Digital Law and CCLA.
As jurisdictions worldwide explore the development of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), understanding the determinants of public adoption has become an increasingly urgent policy concern. Drawing on an empirical study conducted in collaboration with the Bank of Israel, Professor Plato-Shinar presented findings on public willingness to adopt a Digital Shekel. The study reveals relatively strong interest among respondents and, notably, identifies institutional trust — rather than privacy concerns — as the central factor shaping receptiveness to CBDCs.
Challenging prevailing assumptions in global CBDC debates, the research demonstrates that trust in central banks is not merely contextual, but foundational to digital currency acceptance. While grounded in a non-Asian case study, the findings offer important comparative insights for Asian jurisdictions navigating similar questions of design, governance, and public confidence.
We thank Professor Plato-Shinar for an illuminating presentation and for advancing critical conversations at the intersection of financial regulation, technology, and institutional trust.
