Marion Laboure, a macro strategist of the Deutsche Bank recently stated that central bank digital currency (CBDC) initiative has been boosted by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

This was cited in a tweet, on the 3rd of April which implied that government authorities would be motivated to consider digital alternatives, due threat of the virus which is accentuated by cash circulation.

Reports from mid February stated that China had started quarantine on used bank notes, since COVID-19 is known to persist on surfaces for several hours. Laboure also claimed in a tweet that the government fears that cash handling is a potential infection risk factor.

A report by Deutsche Bank in late January, highlighted the fact that digital currencies will not be replacing cash anytime soon, stating that cash circulation will last for a long period of time despite the fact that there has been a decline in using cash as a payment method since the outbreak of the disease.

In contrast to the Deutsche Bank report, an article published on the 19th of March, co-authored by Marion Laboure, Jeurgen Braunstein, and Sachin Silva, suggests the adoption of digital payments in response to the pandemic.

“A once-in-a-century pathogen demands once-in-a-century solutions. An obvious place to start is to accelerate the inevitable shift toward #digitalcash.” #digitalcurrencies #dbresearch @MarionLaboure

— Deutsche Bank (@DeutscheBank) April 3, 2020

They stated that a crisis that happens once in a century demands a once in a century approach apparently insinuating that digital currencies could be the solution to such pandemics that demands less bodily contacts.

Hopefully, not just the Chinese and Deutsche Bank, many other central banks may start taking digital currencies seriosly on account of COVID-19.