Side by Side: How Much Digital Cash May You Hold?

On 17 October Christine Lagarde told the IMF’s steering committee that passing the digital euro regulation before the year is out “is key,” five days after a Bank of England deputy governor said the Bank “does not see an urgent need” for a digital pound. Today Beijing’s Financial Street Forum is expected to unveil a “central bank-side digital RMB system.” The question for the counter: how much money issued directly by the central bank, in digital form, may one person hold?

Euro area

About 3,000 euros, reportedly, under the limits the ECB has proposed. The European Parliament voted 416 to 169 on 9 July to open negotiations, a 12-month pilot with 36 payment providers is planned for late 2027, and the ECB hopes citizens can have it in 2029. Frankfurt has measured the pocket three years before sewing it on.

United Kingdom

Between 10,000 and 20,000 pounds, the range the Bank of England has floated. Now the Bank notes that central bank money “has fallen from two-thirds of transactions in the economy to 8%” and would rather banks and stablecoin issuers mint the tokens. The most generous ceiling on the list, fitted to a room the Bank may never build.

China

10,000 yuan in a wallet opened with only a phone number, and 500,000 yuan in one verified with an ID card and linked to a bank, according to wallet specifications reported in 2021. Under an action plan effective from 1 January 2026, banks may pay interest on digital yuan wallet balances. Beijing set out to digitise the banknote and arrived at something closer to a savings account.

India

No cap is needed to read the figure that matters. The e-rupee in circulation stood at ₹771.66 crore at the end of March 2026, down from ₹1,016.50 crore a year earlier, while banknotes rose 11.9 percent to ₹41,23,995 crore. Paper still outnumbers the digital rupee by more than five thousand to one.

United States

Zero. An executive order of 23 January 2025 prohibits federal agencies “from undertaking any action to establish, issue, or promote CBDCs” and orders existing plans “immediately terminated.” The only ceiling on the list set at floor level.

Verdict

Washington has forbidden what London has shelved, Frankfurt is still drafting, New Delhi has issued and Beijing now lets banks pay interest on. The limits run from nothing in Washington to 500,000 yuan in Beijing, with Frankfurt’s set partly to reassure banks that deposits will not flee. Frankfurt and London spent years calculating how much the public might pour in. New Delhi has the only limit that needs no law to enforce, set by the public itself at under two rupees in ten thousand.