The Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI), the BIS Innovation Hub (BISIH), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank published a paper on challenges to addressing and approaching the establishment of a multilateral cross-border payments platform. Such a platform could reduce the need for intermediaries and allow payment service providers in different jurisdictions to transact directly with each other. Two paths are examined – the growth approach that involves expanding existing multilateral platforms to additional jurisdictions, currencies and participants, and the greenfield approach that involves building a new, potentially global, infrastructure for cross-border payments.

"The stakes for redesigning access to money are high. As such, many exciting areas remain for future research, including socio-technical and user research; systems design, security and privacy; and research on the economics of CBDC compared to existing solutions. In exploring these topics, we must always ask ourselves whether new financial technologies increase the self-determination and agency of the poor and vulnerable. In order to achieve a public interest benefit from money technologies, we must achieve inclusion as well as other dimensions of the public good." (This is a summary of the recent MIT survey-based paper on CBDC and financial inclusion.)

Iran and Russia are reportedly looking to launch a new gold-backed stablecoin to be used for cross-border transactions in the place of the US dollar, the Iranian rial and the Russian ruble in the Persian Gulf region. The cryptocurrency would also specifically intended as a payment method in the Astrakhan area – an economic zone whose design helped Russia begin to receive cargo shipments from Iran.

The Council of the European Union (Eurogroup) reaffirmed its support for the continued efforts of all European and national institutions involved in the preparatory work for the potential issuance of a digital euro. It asserted that a digital euro should complement, and not replace cash, and should guarantee access to central bank money for euro area users in times of increased digitalization in payments.A risk-based approach could be followed to allow for more privacy in the case of less risky transactions, which could ensure a wider adoption of the digital euro among citizens with a stronger preference for privacy. The Council also supports the exploration of an offline functionality which would serve a wider range of use cases and also contribute to financial inclusion.

"CBDCs are a huge undertaking. Many of the motivations for doing it are very poor and there are a lot of risks. I would urge central banks not to do it."

"A CBDC poses substantial risks to financial privacy, financial freedom, free markets, and cybersecurity. Yet the purported benefits fail to stand up to scrutiny. There is no reason for the U.S. government to issue a CBDC when the costs are so high and the benefits so low."

As announced in December 2022, the European Central Bank (ECB) is inviting market participants to take part in market research to get an overview of options for the technical design of possible digital euro components and services. Participation is voluntary and will not have any impact on eligibility for future procurement procedures related to a digital euro or any other topic. Nor will it imply any pre-selection for a potential subsequent tender. Submissions are due by February 17, 2023 in a fully anonymous manner, avoiding trade names.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) has added a new function to its e-CNY payment app so that select Android-based mobile phones can be still be used to make tap-to-pay payments without internet connection or power. Users need to activate the function in the e-yuan app, and can choose how many times it can be used and how much can be paid after their phone shuts down. A verification code needs to be entered on the device if a payment exceeds the code-free quota, and payment will continue only if it passes the system check. Users also can set payment limits in their phone settings. In addition, if users have lost their mobile phones they can log in to the e-yuan app on another mobile phone to suspend the payment-without-power function.

A Bank of International Settlements (BIS) paper suggests that authorities can take three different approaches when it comes to crypto-assets; targeted regulation, containment ("let crypto burn"), or  a complete ban. Central banks and public authorities could also work to make traditional finance (TradFi) more attractive. A key option is to encourage sound innovation with central bank digital currency (CBDC).

The MIT Digital Currency Initiative (DCI) published a paper on how a central bank digital currency (CBDC) could be designed to improve access to financial services, and whether it makes economic sense for a central bank to issue CBDC as a means of promoting inclusion and what preconditions may be necessary for success. It argues that any digital currency is only as good for inclusion as the intermediaries through which people use it. Designing a CBDC that merely replicates the features of existing digital payment systems would not make a meaningful difference for financial inclusion.

"There have been some slight fluctuations in USDD’s price at the start of the new year, as the stablecoin has dipped to the 97-cent range on a few occasions in 2023. After Terra’s stablecoin depegging event in May 2022, USDD started to slip slightly below the $1 peg, causing anxiety in the crypto industry. A number of other stablecoins saw similar deviations. On June 19, 2022, USDD reached a low of 92.8 cents per unit, but the stablecoin managed to regain the $1 peg, trading between 98 cents and 99 cents per unit."

"Even though the rate to borrow Tether is higher than the rate to borrow USD Coin, it may be worthwhile for me to go with the a Tether loan if I think that the odds of Tether failing justify the higher financing cost. We can even go a bit further and say that the 0.9% premium on a Tether loan is the market's best estimate of the odds of Tether losing its peg relative to USD Coin losing its peg. So for all those would-be stablecoin analysts out there, keep your eye on Aave's USD Coin-Tether spread. It's a good indicator of stablecoin risk."

The Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) successfully used its JAM-DEX CBDC to pay wages to, and conduct of transactions by, select workers employed in the Christmas Work Programme from December 19 to 23, 2022. This involved  onboarding three contractors, more than 100 workers and 70 small merchants to the Lynk app within select communities. Onboarded merchants were primarily market vendors and owners of food shops, restaurants and bars.

The Bank of England (BoE) has engaged Consult Hyperion, on a pair of £100,000+ CBDC assignments. The contract award notices for Point-of-sale [PoS] proof-of-concept [PoC] consultancy services and Feasibility study service on the e-commerce of CBDC were published on the UK government’s Contracts Finder service. The website also shows that the BoE is currently working with Oliver Wyman to provide support on paper for research on digital currency and the MIT Digital Currency Initiative. Interestingly, all were awarded under nontransparent procurement processes that allow the BoE to avoid open tenders.

A Mexican central bank digital currency (CBDC) is reportedly still in its initial stages of development, with the general directorate of payment systems and market infrastructures indicating that it is still determining the requirements for its issuance. Also, in response to a transparency request made by El Sol de México, Banxico said that for the fiscal year of 2022 10.22 million pesos (about $535,000) were allocated to the central bank's CBDC project, obtained from the fees charged to financial institutions for using the Interbank Electronic Payment System.

Presentation by Galia Borja Gómez, Subgobernadora, Banco de México* FORO AMFE 2022 "FINANCIAMIENTO ESPECIALIZADO EN UNA ECONOMÍA INTERNACIONAL QUE SE REGIONALIZA. CASO MÉXICO on September 30, 2022.

"Nigeria will ban cash withdrawals from government accounts from March 1 to tackle illicit activity and push toward a cashless economy. "

Algeria's Prime Minister, Aïmene Benabderrahmane, reportedly said that the Bank of Algeria is working to create a digital dinar" as part of the digitization of payments.

"In recent years, the rise in digital payment innovations such as contactless cards and Interac e‑Transfer has spurred a discussion about the future of cash at the point of sale. The COVID-19 pandemic has also contributed to this discussion: While consumers reported that some merchants started to refuse cash early on in the pandemic, such reported refusals dropped as the pandemic progressed. The Bank of Canada’s most recent Merchant Acceptance Survey (MAS) took place in 2018, prompting a need for updated data to study merchant cash acceptance, payment trends and conditions for the potential issuance of a central bank digital currency (Lane 2020, 2021a). Against this background, the Bank conducted the 2021–22 MAS Pilot Study to monitor payment methods accepted by small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Survey data was collected from merchants in two batches, in late 2021 and early 2022. Our results show that 97% of SMBs in Canada accepted cash in 2021–22 and only 3% have plans to stop accepting cash. For cards and digital payments, merchant acceptance has increased since 2018. Additionally, the acceptance of different payment methods varies by the size of the merchant, industry and region."

The ECB/Eurosystem is inviting payments/finance experts to express their interest in contributing to the drafting of a rulebook for a digital euro scheme. Applicants will need to be nominated by a relevant European stakeholder association representing key players in the European retail payments market. Candidates will be selected based on their managerial experience in retail payments and the skills required for the role.

A draft law dedicated to the digital ruble has reportedly been filed in the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament. The law introduces rules to determine how the new form of national decree will be issued and amends a series of legal acts to facilitate its implementation. The "Currency Regulation and Currency Control" law will be amended to secure the digital ruble's legal tender status, and changes to the federal law on "Personal Data" will allow the central bank to tap into personal information without asking for consent.

"Here are four things that Tether can do to ensure that the next time the crypto economy undergoes a shock, tether stays steady."

Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) provided an update on the proof-of-concept phase of its Digital Turkish Lira Project. Payment transactions were successfully executed on the Digital Turkish Lira Network, and in the first quarter of 2023, closed-circuit tests will be carried out with technology stakeholders. The findings obtained from the tests will be shared with the public in a comprehensive evaluation report. The tests will then be expanded later in 2023 to include selected banks and financial technology companies, followed by broad participation pilot tests. Tests will include checking out how the distributed ledger technology (DLT) based platform will integrate with existing payment ecosystems. Also, throughout 2023, priority will be given to the legal framework and building out digital identification infrastructure.

The Bank of Canada published the results from the 2021 Methods-of-Payment (MOP) Survey. It finds that while fewer Canadians are holding cash, those who do have cash tended to hold higher amounts over time. This is associated with fewer trips to obtain cash, but larger amounts withdrawn for a given trip, on average. Views about the features of cash have changed somewhat in recent years, though cash is still viewed quite positively in terms of acceptance, cost, ease of use and security. Most Canadians have no plans to stop using cash in the future.