Call for Expressions of Interest to Participate in the Appia Contact Group (ECB)

The European Central Bank (ECB) is inviting financial market stakeholders and public sector bodies to express their interest in participating in the Appia Contact Group Appia CG). The Appia project is aimed at enabling the settlement of distributed ledger technology (DLT) transactions using tokenized central bank money (CeBM) via a unified settlement ecosystem. It runs alongside the Pontes project, aimed at settling DLT transactions using API-based trigger and hash-link mechanisms and dedicated DLT cash wallets funded from TARGET accounts, which has its own contact group. The Appia CG will contribute to the Appia roadmap and advise on the operation and evolution of the Pontes pilot. Membership targets future users, contributors to Appia, relevant value‑chain actors, and industry associations. National central banks and selected European authorities participate as observers; the group is chaired and serviced by the European Central Bank and meets quarterly, with work outputs generally published. [ECB]

#Eurozone #ECB #Fintech #Tokenization #DFC #CBDC #wCBDC #SettlementSystems

·ecb.europa.eu·Jun 2, 2026

Call for Expressions of Interest to Participate in the Appia Contact Group (ECB)

MoneyGram Launches MGUSD Stablecoin (MoneyGram)

MoneyGram announced the launch of its MGUSD U.S. dollar stablecoin to underpin its global remittance and payments network. MGUSD is framed as an infrastructure layer integrated into a self-custodial wallet in the MoneyGram app, initially in the United States, using Bridge as regulated issuer, M0 smart contracts and Stellar for settlement, with Fireblocks providing custody. Unresolved are regulatory treatment across markets, interoperability with other stablecoins and systems, and how issuance and reserves will be supervised at scale. [MoneyGram]

#CryptoAssets #Fintech #Stablecoins #Payments #MoneyGram #DFC

·prnewswire.com·Jun 2, 2026

MoneyGram Launches MGUSD Stablecoin (MoneyGram)

Advancing Digital Payments in Bhutan (ADB)

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) published an assessment of Bhutan's digital payment infrastructure that included an update on Bhutan's Royal Monetary Authority (RMA) central bank digital currency (CBDC) projects, both retail and wholesale. The aim is to provide more accessible and secure financial services to a broader population, including underserved communities, and streamline cross‑border transactions, including by reducing the need for correspondent banking relationships and simplifying currency conversion processes in international trade. However, the ADB found that there are gaps in existing financial services regulations and payment systems rules will need to be addressed first. [ADB]

#Bhutan #Fintech #CrossBorder #Payments #ADB #DFC #CBDC #wCBDC

·adb.org·Jun 2, 2026

Advancing Digital Payments in Bhutan (ADB)

Why Tokenized Finance Needs Open, Testable, Verifiable Evidence of What Actually Moves (X)

Mike Rogers posted an essay on X that argues that tokenized finance must be judged by empirically verifiable capital movement, not by issuance, branding, or architectural claims, in a context where tokenization is migrating from pilots to “infrastructure” rhetoric. It highlights a measurement gap: faster, intraday tokenized collateral and money market fund structures can move between legacy end‑of‑day reporting snapshots, making velocity and reuse harder to observe with existing regulatory frames. The author criticizes the field’s reliance on stock metrics and “permission structure” signals (legal setup, institutional papers, conferences) as proxies for realized flow, and proposes a “turnover framework” and “evidence lane” that insist on reconstructable, externally testable records of what moved, when, under what authority, and with what settlement proof. The core unresolved issue is whether major tokenization initiatives will expose sufficient, standardized, independently inspectable movement data to substantiate claims about liquidity, collateral efficiency, and settlement gains. [X]

#Tokenization #Fintech #DFC #Collateral

·x.com·May 31, 2026

Why Tokenized Finance Needs Open, Testable, Verifiable Evidence of What Actually Moves (X)

From Lottery Draws to Fiscal Spending, China Broadens Digital Yuan Footprint (Reuters)

Reuters published an article that argues China is accelerating efforts to embed the digital yuan in domestic fiscal operations and cross-border trade as part of a broader push to reduce dollar dependence. The piece details new People’s Bank of China incentives that treat digital yuan balances as deposit liabilities, sharpen bank performance metrics around e‑CNY accounts, and expand pilots into lottery payouts, prepaid cards, budgetary spending, medical insurance controls, and green electricity tracking. The article highlights structural constraints, including the small transactional base relative to UnionPay and tepid foreign demand, and notes that cross‑border ambitions via platforms such as mBridge face counterparties’ limited willingness to adopt the currency, leaving the pace of yuan internationalization uncertain. [Reuters]

#CBDC #China #wCBDC #Fintech #DFC #CrossBorder

·reuters.com·May 31, 2026

From Lottery Draws to Fiscal Spending, China Broadens Digital Yuan Footprint (Reuters)

Reserve Bank of India Updates on its CBDC Pilot Programs (RBI)

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) published its 2025–26 Annual Report in which it provided updates on its multiple retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilots tied to direct benefit transfer (DBT) schemes. These included using programmable retail CBDC to distribute food subsidies. Beneficiaries in Gujarat, Puducherry, and Chandigarh received subsidies in CBDC form that could be redeemed only for eligible goods at designated merchants, demonstrating the technology’s ability to target and restrict spending. The RBI views programmability as a key feature for public-sector use cases and plans to extend CBDC pilots to additional DBT programs and broader domestic retail applications during 2026–27. The RBI also reported on its wholesale CBDC pilots. During 2025–26 it developed the Unified Markets Interface (UMI), a platform designed to support tokenized financial assets while using wholesale CBDC for settlement. A pilot involving tokenized certificates of deposit was launched on the platform. The RBI also advanced cross-border wholesale CBDC work through cooperation with Singapore and the UAE and by joining BIS Innovation Hub initiatives Project Rialto and Project Mandala. Looking ahead, it plans additional tokenization pilots, broader participation in UMI-based experiments, and the operationalization of bilateral cross-border CBDC pilots with selected use cases. [RBI]

#India #Fintech #CBDC #wCBDC #Tokenization #Settlement #DFC

·rbi.org.in·May 29, 2026

Reserve Bank of India Updates on its CBDC Pilot Programs (RBI)

Eurosystem Moves Toward Extending T2 Operating Hours (ECB)

The European Central Bank is proposing a phased extension of TARGET (Trans-European Automated Real-time Gross Settlement Express Transfer) operating hours, in the context of growing instant payments, cross‑border payment reforms and forthcoming distributed ledger technology (DLT) and digital euro services. In the short term it will (i) automatically remunerate excess reserves on all TARGET current accounts, including TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) dedicated cash accounts, (ii) introduce rule‑based floor‑ and ceiling‑driven automated liquidity transfers between TIPS cash accounts and main cash accounts via Central Liquidity Management (CLM), and (iii) add a brief weekend TARGET window for liquidity transfers, without changing value‑dating. Medium‑ to long‑term options include near‑24/7 CLM, near‑24/5 real-time gross settlement, later cut‑off times and weekend opening of the Eurosystem Collateral Management System, with open questions on liquidity and run risk when markets are closed, collateral and staffing costs, cyber risk and the alignment of remuneration and value-dating. [ECB].

#ECB #Eurozone #PaymentSystems #RTGS #Settlement #Fintech #FastPayments #DFC

·ecb.europa.eu·May 29, 2026

Eurosystem Moves Toward Extending T2 Operating Hours (ECB)

Research Project on the Master Plan Development for Pacific Island Countries (Fortience)

[March 22, 2026] Fortience (QUNIE) published selection results stating that, under Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry “Global South Future‑Oriented Co‑Creation” program, ABeam Consulting had been chosen for a “Research Project on the Master Plan Development for the Introduction of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) for Cross-Border Payments in Pacific Island Countries.” The RFP window had run from 7 October to 1 November 2024, and the contract’s implementation period was defined as approximately one year from signing, capped at 28 February 2026, implying that most substantive work should have been completed before the March 2026 announcement. The description notes the use of Soramitsu’s blockchain and cites countries “such as Tonga, Samoa, and Cook Islands,” but no master plan, technical design, or central‑bank response linked to this project has been published, and links to other Soramitsu Pacific initiatives remain indirect. [Fortience]

#Asia-Pacific #Tonga #Samoa #CookIslands #Japan #CBDC #DFC #Fintech #Soramitsu

·fortience.com·May 28, 2026

Research Project on the Master Plan Development for Pacific Island Countries (Fortience)

Project Agorá: A Shared Programmable Platform for Wholesale Cross-Border Payments (BIS)

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) published an update on Project Agorá, a public-private collaboration convened by the and the Institute of International Finance (IIF). It proposes a two-layer distributed ledger platform for wholesale cross-border payments, combining tokenized central bank reserves with tokenized commercial bank deposits linked via smart contracts. The architecture explicitly preserves correspondent banking and the two-tier monetary system — a design choice that limits ambition considerably, since the structural inefficiencies of correspondent chains (nostro prefunding costs, corridor de-risking, access inequality) remain largely intact. The principal claimed advantages — atomic settlement eliminating credit risk, and parallel rather than sequential compliance processing — are real but narrow, and address wholesale volumes where settlement failures are costly rather than the access and cost problems motivating the G20 reform agenda. FX settlement and liquidity-saving mechanisms are out of scope. Governance arrangements, settlement finality across jurisdictions, cybersecurity at production scale, and coordinated financial crime information-sharing are all unresolved, leaving the prototype considerably further from deployment than the report's tone suggests. [BIS]

#BIS #Fintech #DFC #CBDC #wCBDC #CrossBorder #Payments #DLT

·bis.org·May 27, 2026

Project Agorá: A Shared Programmable Platform for Wholesale Cross-Border Payments (BIS)

DTC’s Tokenization Service to Connect with Stellar Public Blockchain (DTCC)

DTCC will connect its DTC tokenization service to the Stellar public blockchain, enabling tokenization of DTC‑custodied assets with full lifecycle support and existing investor protections, with initial availability targeted for the first half of 2027. The move, enabled by a 2025 SEC no‑action letter, is part of a multi‑chain strategy focused on tokenizing highly liquid assets (for example, Russell 1000 constituents, major index ETFs, and U.S. Treasuries) to improve settlement speed, collateral mobility, and capital efficiency on public rails within a regulated framework. [DTCC}

#Blockchain #DLT #DTCC #Fintech #DFC #Stellar #Tokenization #Settlement

·dtcc.com·May 27, 2026

DTC’s Tokenization Service to Connect with Stellar Public Blockchain (DTCC)

Stablecoins: Convergent Rules on the Surface, Divergent Regimes in Practice (CEPS)

This CEPS paper compares seven stablecoin regimes that look convergent on the surface—full or near‑full backing in liquid, segregated reserves, exclusion of algorithmic designs, and prohibition of yield—but in practice create divergent regimes through supervisory interpretation and reserve-allocation choices. It analyzes three main structural elements: treatment of foreign‑issued tokens, reserve composition, and whether to anchor stablecoins in existing law (for example, electronic money or payment instruments) or create sui generis categories. These choices reshape risk‑sharing and market structure by determining where the stablecoin float sits (commercial bank deposits, short‑dated sovereign debt, central bank balances, or trusts) and who captures seigniorage, as well as how far global fungibility survives under graduated market‑access models versus de facto exclusion. Key unresolved issues are the lack of a workable mutual‑recognition architecture, the under‑acknowledged redistributive nature of reserve rules, and the still‑implicit policy choice about whether stablecoins are payment money or investment instruments, given universal yield prohibitions. [CEPS]

#Stablecoins #Regulation #Fintech #CryptoAssets #Europe #UnitedStates #UnitedKingdom #HongKong #Singapore #Japan #UAE

·ceps.eu·May 26, 2026

Stablecoins: Convergent Rules on the Surface, Divergent Regimes in Practice (CEPS)

Georgia Central Bank Update on CBDC Plans (NBG)

[August 7, 2025] In the 2025 edition of its 2023-2025 Supervisory Strategy, the National Bank of Georgia (NBG) provided an update on its plan to initiate a digital GEL central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot program. In collaboration with a technology partner selected by the NBG, practical use cases identified by the NBG will be tested, after which the digital GEL will be implemented in a real environment based on the insights gained from the pilot program. In November 2023, the NBG had selected Ripple as its digital GEL technology partner following a competition process, but given the long time between that announcement and the August 2025 update, one has to wonder whether Ripple is still in the picture. [NBG]

#Georgia #DFC #CBDC #Fintech #Ripple

·web.archive.org·May 25, 2026

Georgia Central Bank Update on CBDC Plans (NBG)

The Strategic Case for the Digital Euro (SAFE)

In a Sustainable Architecture for Fincne in Europe (SAFE) policy letter, T. Berg, V.R. Lindner, and D. Rößler argue that the digital euro retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) operated in a two‑tier structure with both online and offline functionality, should be treated as critical European payment infrastructure rather than a new payment product, to secure monetary sovereignty and reduce dependence on non‑European card networks and dollar‑denominated stablecoins. It critiques narratives that private solutions such as stablecoins and the Wero scheme could substitute for a digital euro, emphasizing that they cannot deliver universal acceptance, legal certainty, competitive neutrality, and sovereign control over settlement infrastructure. [SAFE]

#CBDC #Eurozone #ECB #Sovereignty #Fintech #DFC

·safe-frankfurt.de·May 25, 2026

The Strategic Case for the Digital Euro (SAFE)

Tether and the Government of Georgia to Launch GEL₮ (Tether)

Tether plans to launch GEL₮, a Georgian Lari stablecoin, with the support of the Government of Georgia, under Georgia’s new stablecoin framework, which was designed to achieve substantive compatibility with emerging U.S. stablecoin regulation. GEL₮ is intended to support cross-border commerce and domestic digital payments, but key design details remain undisclosed, including the legal issuer, reserve location, redemption mechanics and launch timeline. The initiative aligns with the National Bank of Georgia’s March rules on “stable virtual assets” that apply to registered virtual asset service providers and aim to improve consumer protection and risk management. GEL₮ would join Tether’s growing set of non-dollar stablecoins alongside Mexican peso and offshore yuan tokens and a planned United Arab Emirates dirham token. [Tether]

#Stablecoins #Tether #Georgia #Fintech #DFC

·tether.io·May 25, 2026

Tether and the Government of Georgia to Launch GEL₮ (Tether)

Money Uniformity and Retail CBDC (CEPR)

The Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) published a paper by A. Milne, D. Niepelt and D. Skeie synthesizes research on whether and how a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) can support “uniformity” or singleness of money across central bank liabilities, bank deposits, and private digital monies, especially stablecoins. It compares architectures—retail CBDC, tokenized deposits, and regulated stablecoins—and argues that uniformity is an equilibrium property requiring elastic, near-par convertibility, not a specific technology. It highlights design tensions around CBDC holding limits, remuneration, and programmability, stresses that CBDC is not strictly necessary for singleness but can reinforce the unit of account and monetary sovereignty, and leaves unresolved which convertibility margins must remain unconstrained in stress and how far retail public money causally underpins trust in private money. [CEPR]

#CBDC #Fintech #DFC

·cepr.org·May 25, 2026

Money Uniformity and Retail CBDC (CEPR)

Agentic Commerce and the Battleground for New Payments Infrastructure (BoE)

A post on the Bank of England (BoE) "Bank Underground) blog explores how agentic commerce could reshape future payment design. Agentic commerce shifts retail payments from human‑initiated, low‑frequency transactions to AI‑initiated, high‑frequency, low‑value flows that span multiple payment rails. The post maps four emerging layers—agent communication, payment initiation, identity assurance and settlement rails—but stresses current standards are proprietary and non‑interoperable across card, account‑to‑account and blockchain systems. This fragmentation creates design problems around consistent human‑agent identity, support for micro‑payments at scale, and enforcing deterministic legal requirements in probabilistic AI environments. The post argues for an abstraction layer that lets agents complete checkouts regardless of rail, and raises the policy question of whether a central authority should mandate common identity and interoperability standards for agentic payments, while remaining technologically neutral across cards, stablecoins and tokenized deposits. [BoE]

#AgenticAI #Fintech #AI #Payments #Stablecoins #DepositTokens #Tokenization #DFC

·bankunderground.co.uk·May 23, 2026

Agentic Commerce and the Battleground for New Payments Infrastructure (BoE)

Synchronisation (BoE)

The Bank of England (BoE) is developing a synchronisation capability for its renewed Real-Time Gross Settlement service (RT2) to enable atomic settlement—where central-bank–money transfers occur if and only if corresponding asset transfers on external ledgers also complete. This two-stage earmark-and-release process locks funds in RT2 accounts and assets on external ledgers until all conditions are met, then releases them simultaneously to settle transactions atomically. Third-party synchronisation operators will orchestrate these transactions by connecting RT2 (via a new interface) with external asset ledgers, end-customers, and RTGS account holders; operators themselves need not hold central-bank money or RTGS accounts. The Bank is running a Synchronisation Lab during 2026 to test design options and allow prospective operators to demonstrate use cases such as foreign-exchange settlement, tokenised securities, and property transactions. (BoE)

#RTGS #Settlement #PaymentSystems #SettlementSystems #Fintech #DFC #Tokenization

·web.archive.org·May 22, 2026

Synchronisation (BoE)

Extending RTGS and CHAPS Settlement Hours – Next Steps Towards Near 24x7 Settlement (BoE)

The Bank of England (BoE) published a consultation paper on extending its RTGS and CHAPS settlement hours, building on the already‑agreed 01:30–18:00 weekday window from September 2027, with a phased move toward “near 24x7” operation. It proposes first adding Sunday and selected UK bank‑holiday settlement (around 01:30–18:00, no earlier than 2029), then lengthening weekday and one weekend‑day hours to a 22x6 regime from 2031, while seeking views on a longer‑term 22x7 versus 23.5x7 end‑state. The Bank frames extensions as enabling a multi‑money ecosystem (including tokenised deposits and stablecoins), supporting the G20 cross‑border payments agenda via a larger global settlement window, and improving liquidity and risk management through more frequent settlement and better use of prefunding. It highlights operational, legal, liquidity‑facility, staffing, and change‑management constraints and invites industry feedback on use cases, sequencing, and design choices by 10 August 2026. [BoE]

#PaymentSystems #RTGS #Payments #UnitedKingdom #Settlement #SettlementSystems #Fintech #DFC

·web.archive.org·May 22, 2026

Extending RTGS and CHAPS Settlement Hours – Next Steps Towards Near 24x7 Settlement (BoE)

Despite Trump’s Pledge, a CBDC is Being Explored Behind Closed Fed Doors, Says Former CTFC Chair (CoinDesk)

Former CFTC Chairman Timothy Massad argues that, despite public denials, the Federal Reserve is in practice working on central bank digital currency (CBDC) type infrastructure, including through its participation in the Bank for International Settlements’ Project Agora. He characterizes U.S. involvement in such tokenized wholesale settlement experiments as evidence that officials are effectively developing CBDC rails “behind closed doors,” even while insisting that a retail digital dollar is not on the Fed’s agenda. In a clumsily written January 2025 Executive Order, U.S. President Trump prohibited the Fed from undertaking any action to establish, issue, or promote CBDCs, and ordered the termination of any ongoing plans or initiatives related to the creation of a CBDC. Unfortunately the Order encompassed both retail and wholesale CBDC which, in theory, means that Fed should shut down all account services it provides to U.S. banks. The language defining the type of CBDC to be banned in the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act that is currently bouncing around the U.S. Congress is more refined, focusing on CBDC that is widely available to the public. [CoinDesk]

#CBDC #UnitedStates #Fintech #DFC #wCBDC #Regulation

·coindesk.com·May 21, 2026

Despite Trump’s Pledge, a CBDC is Being Explored Behind Closed Fed Doors, Says Former CTFC Chair (CoinDesk)

ECB Receives over 50 PSP Applications to Participate in Digital Euro Pilot (ECB)

The European Central Bank(ECB) announced that it has received over 50 applications to participate in the twelve-month digital euro pilot scheduled to begin in the second half of 2027. Applications came from both acquiring and distributing payment service providers (PSPs) and small and large banks from across the euro area. It will use a non‑legal‑tender “beta” digital euro in a controlled environment to test technical, operational and user experience (UX) aspects of P2P (online/offline) and P2B payments at physical and online points of sale. PSPs will onboard users and merchants without remuneration. The ECB will now review the applications and announce the outcome in July. [ECB via LinkedIn] See also: https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/digital_euro/pilot/html/index.en.html

#CBDC #ECB #Eurozone #Fintech #DFC

·linkedin.com·May 21, 2026

ECB Receives over 50 PSP Applications to Participate in Digital Euro Pilot (ECB)

EC Seeks Feedback on the Functioning of EU Crypto-Asset Rules (EC)

The European Commission (EC) launched a consultation to evaluate whether the Markets in Crypto‑Assets Regulation (MiCA), implemented in 2024, remains fit for purpose given rapid changes in digital asset markets and global regulation. It seeks feedback on MiCA’s core building blocks, including rules for crypto‑assets, asset‑referenced tokens, e‑money tokens, their issuers and service providers. There is an open public consultation and a more technical targeted consultation for industry and public authorities. Responses are invited until August 31, 2026 and will inform future European Union (EU) policy on digital assets. [EC]

#CryptoAssets #Fintech #Regulation #Stablecoins #Europe #DFC

·finance.ec.europa.eu·May 21, 2026

EC Seeks Feedback on the Functioning of EU Crypto-Asset Rules (EC)

Euro Stablecoin Project Qivalis Gains Backing of 37 Banks (FT)

The Financial Times (FT) reported that Amsterdam-based Qivalis has secured support from 37 European banks, including BNP Paribas, ING, UniCredit, ABN Amro, Intesa Sanpaolo and Rabobank, for a euro-denominated stablecoin aimed at reducing dollar dominance in crypto and supporting cross-border and “atomic” settlement. The consortium seeks regulatory approval from De Nederlandsche Bank in the second half of 2026 and plans to launch at scale to compete with small existing euro stablecoins such as Circle’s EURC, Société Générale’s Forge and Eurite, in a market where almost the entire 320 billion dollars of stablecoin float is dollar-based. https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7462774365638553600/ [FT]

#Europe #Eurozone #Stablecoins #Fintech #DFC

·ft.com·May 20, 2026

Euro Stablecoin Project Qivalis Gains Backing of 37 Banks (FT)

The Costs of Payment Methods in the Retail Sector (Bundesbank)

Deutsche Bundesbank published a study that quantifies retailer-side resource costs of cash, national debit (girocard), and international card schemes in German brick-and-mortar retail using time-and-motion data and a 268-firm cost survey. The study finds cash cheapest per transaction (0.43 euro) but costly relative to turnover (2.3 percent), while girocard minimizes cost as a share of turnover (0.8 percent) and international debit and credit cards are materially more expensive, driven by higher fee components. Results imply strong scale economies (lower unit costs for larger merchants), structurally higher burdens for small firms and food service, and policy relevance for interchange regulation, instant-credit-transfer-based schemes, and digital euro design as tools to discipline international card pricing and preserve a viable cash infrastructure. [Bundesbank]

#Cash #Germany #Payments #Fintech #DFC

·bundesbank.de·May 19, 2026

The Costs of Payment Methods in the Retail Sector (Bundesbank)

The Future of Tokenisation – A Joint Vision from the BOE and FCA for Wholesale Markets (UK FCA)

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Bank of England issue a call for input on a joint roadmap to scale tokenisation across U.K. wholesale markets, with responses due 3 July 2026. They seek views on: where tokenisation delivers the highest marginal benefit; whether their proposed regulatory principles and priority areas are appropriate; how far existing rules impede tokenised issuance, trading, and settlement; and where interoperability (domestic and cross‑border) standards matter most for firms. The paper also requests detailed feedback on safeguarding frameworks for specified investment cryptoassets, including how to structure client‑asset protection, legal title, and fungibility when tokenised and non‑tokenised forms coexist. Finally, they ask industry to comment on the proposed sequencing and content of initiatives (Digital Securities Sandbox, prudential alignment, central bank money settlement, DIGIT pilot), and to flag concrete product pipelines or experiments where early supervisory engagement would unlock investment. [UK FCA]

#Tokenization #Regulation #UnitedKingdom #Settlement #DFC #Fintech

·fca.org.uk·May 19, 2026

The Future of Tokenisation – A Joint Vision from the BOE and FCA for Wholesale Markets (UK FCA)

RBA and DFCRC Release Findings From Project Acacia (RBA)

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (DFCRC) published a report detailing the findings of Project Acacia, which examined how innovations in digital money and settlement infrastructure could support the development of wholesale tokenized asset markets in Australia. They tested 20 wholesale tokenized asset use cases across fixed income, repos, and managed funds. Atomic settlement, programmability, and composability benefits were demonstrated across asset classes, estimating A$24 billion in annual economic gains. Pilot wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) proved feasible on third-party distributed ledger technology (DLT) platforms but raised governance, finality, and liquidity fragmentation challenges. Real-time gross settlement (RTGS) synchronization mechanisms delivered comparable benefits at lower complexity. Deposit tokens are assessed as more suitable than stablecoins for wholesale settlement given prudential backing, though interbank transferability and deposit insurance scheme coverage require legislative clarification. They identified legal and regulatory uncertainty, coordination gaps, and interoperability as scaling barriers, motivating a post-Acacia program including a digital financial market infrastructure sandbox, expanded deposit token work, and RBA settlement infrastructure consultations. [RBA]

#Australia #CBDC #wCBDC #Tokenization #Fintech #DFC #Settlement

·rba.gov.au·May 18, 2026

RBA and DFCRC Release Findings From Project Acacia (RBA)

The Moneyness of Stablecoins (Odinet Tosado and Yadav)

In a forthcoming Yale Law Journal article, C. Odinet, A. Tosado and Y. Yadav develop a four-element legal framework for "moneyness" and apply it to stablecoins before and after the U.S. GENIUS Act. Moneyness requires conjunctive adequacy across the nature and substance of the claim, safety, discharge capacity, and negotiability, with deficiency in any element undermining the whole. The authors deconstruct the contractual and reserve structures of dominant issuers (Tether and Circle) to show that redemption is conditional and limited by privity, holders lack proprietary interests in backing reserves, and bankruptcy treatment remains ambiguous. These deficiencies matter because they force holders to assess both issuer and custodian solvency, undermine finality in payment discharge, and expose claimants to credit risk incompatible with money's core function of circulating at par without investigation. The GENIUS Act of 2025 mandates reserve requirements and redemption frameworks but fails to resolve key vulnerabilities. It compels reliance on third-party custodians rather than Federal Reserve accounts, contains internally contradictory bankruptcy provisions, and provides no finality rules specifying when transfers extinguish obligations. The authors propose five targeted reforms; Federal Reserve master account access for qualifying issuers, industry-funded insurance, a secured interest regime replacing flawed bankruptcy rules, statutory finality provisions for both direct and intermediated transfers, and express tokenization of redemption rights. [Odinet Tosado and Yadav]

#Stablecoins #Fintech #Regulation #UnitedStates #DFC #Legal

·andreatosato.com·May 17, 2026

The Moneyness of Stablecoins (Odinet Tosado and Yadav)

The Evolution and Future of Money in Canada (Benjamin Geva)

The University of Toronto Press published a book by lawyer and law professor Benjamin Geva on the evolution of money from barter to coins, banknotes, scriptural money, electronic money, and digital currencies. Of course, this has all been covered elsewhere, but what makes this book unique, is the deep, yet very readable, focus on legal aspects, particularly from the perspective of the Canadian monetary regime. The latter includes a thorough history going back to New France's use of agricultural commodities and playing cards as money, to Bank of Canada explorations of both retail and wholesale central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). The book also extensively covers the legal aspects of virtual currencies, particularly stablecoins, and digital bearer instruments (DBIs). Interestingly, Geva makes a case for DBIs as the optimal Canadian retail CBDC as a path of least resistance through the Bank of Canada and Currency Acts, plus several architectural, economic, and privacy advantages over account-based platforms. He also singles out synthetic CBDCs as an optimal solution for achieving uniformity of money in a framework allowing competition. The book ends by addressing the challenges faced by the current monetary system as the digital age continues to evolve and become more decentralized. [University of Toronto Press]

#History #Money #Canada #Fintech #CBDC #Cash #Payments #Offline #DFC #PaymentSystems #wCBDC

·utppublishing.com·May 17, 2026

The Evolution and Future of Money in Canada (Benjamin Geva)

A Modified Gresham's Law of Stablecoins (Cecchetti and Schoenholtz)

Stephen Cecchetti and Kermit Schoenholtz argue that a modified Gresham’s Law in stablecoins implies that regulation targeting issuers and intermediaries, rather than the tokens themselves, will systematically favor pseudonymous, weakly supervised instruments. They emphasize that Bank Secrecy Act–style rules and recent legislative proposals continue to rely on know‑your‑customer at entry and exit points, leaving cross‑border, self‑custodied dollar tokens largely outside effective control and limiting the impact of wallet blacklisting and analytics. This matters because as long as tokens function as bearer‑like digital cash, criminals can arbitrage differences in national enforcement, making stricter regulation of compliant issuers perversely strengthen “bad” offshore rivals. The authors therefore highlight the need for “compliance‑by‑design” instrument architectures and potentially new legal categories that embed screening and traceability into the token layer itself while preserving some privacy, raising unresolved questions about feasibility, governance, and the required degree of international regulatory coordination. [Cecchetti and Schoenholtz]

#Fintech #Regulation #Stablecoins #UnitedStates #USDC #USDT #DFC #FinancialIntegrity #AMLCFT

·moneyandbanking.com·May 17, 2026

A Modified Gresham's Law of Stablecoins (Cecchetti and Schoenholtz)

28th Meeting of the Digital Euro Scheme Rulebook Development Group (ECB)

The European Central Bank (ECB) posted the outcome of the 28th Digital Euro Rulebook Development Group meeting (10 March 2026) reviewed work on ecosystem fit, the digital euro app, user journeys and minimum user-experience requirements, and additional clarifications on offline functionality, including thresholds, recovery and terminal readiness. It discussed risk management (including financial crime, privacy, reputational and multi-account risks), reuse of PCI and other security standards, and updates to front- and back-end implementation specifications, including alignment with ISO 20022 and Berlin Group structures and separation of authorisation and settlement. The group launched a new terminal/ATM workstream (G5), considered rulebook v0.9 consultation updates, and addressed scheme-wide timeouts and potential deep-dive sessions. [ECB]

#CBDC #ECB #Fintech #Eurozone #DFC #Offline

·ecb.europa.eu·May 16, 2026

28th Meeting of the Digital Euro Scheme Rulebook Development Group (ECB)

27th Meeting of the Digital Euro Scheme Rulebook Development Group (ECB)

The European Central Bank (ECB) posted the outcome of the 27th Digital Euro Scheme Rulebook Development Group meeting (27 January 2026). It was agreed to launch two new workstreams on terminal/ATM providers and on the certification and approval framework, reviewed the ECB’s proposed offline digital euro solution, and discussed risk management including use of a digital euro fraud risk score and alignment with the Payment Services Regulation. The group noted progress on cooperation with standardisation bodies (Nexo, ECPC, Berlin Group, EPC), handling of comments on rulebook v0.9, preparation of a limited digital euro pilot with selected payment service providers and merchants, and forthcoming batches of minimum user experience requirements and implementation specifications. [ECB]

#CBDC #ECB #Eurozone #Fintech #Offline #DFC

·ecb.europa.eu·May 16, 2026

27th Meeting of the Digital Euro Scheme Rulebook Development Group (ECB)