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Angolan Central Bank Explores CBDC Issuance (BNA)

[August 7, 2025] Banco Nacional de Angola (BNA) published a payments‑system vision paper that commits to preparing for, and then implementing, a central bank digital currency (CBDC) by 2028, subject to assessments of impacts on financial‑institution sustainability, as part of a broader modernization agenda. The paper frames CBDC as a tool to preserve central bank money’s role as system anchor, safeguard public access to central bank money, and increase efficiency and strategic autonomy, aligned with other innovations such as open banking and cross‑border instant payments. However, it offers no indication of retail versus wholesale scope, technological model, or required legal changes, leaving design and regulatory choices entirely open. [BNA]

#Angola #Fintech #CBDC #DFC #Africa

·bna.ao·Jul 31, 2026

Angolan Central Bank Explores CBDC Issuance (BNA)

Vietnam to Study Pilot Program for National Digital Currency (LuatVietnam)

The Vietnam government has assigned the State Bank of Vietnam to research, propose mechanisms, and conduct pilot implementations of a national digital currency (i.e, central bank digital currency) in 2029 and 2030, in coordination with the Ministry of Finance and other relevant ministries and agencies. This was included in Decision No. 1443/QD-TTg "Comprehensive Reform of Vietnam's Financial Market in Conjunction with Achieving High and Sustained Growth Targets Until 2045" project, signed into effect by Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Van Thang on July 27, 2026. [LuatVietnam]

#Fintech #DFC #CBDC #VietNam

·luatvietnam.vn·Jul 31, 2026

Vietnam to Study Pilot Program for National Digital Currency (LuatVietnam)

Project Agorá Real Value Testing (BIS)

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and Institute of International Finance (IIF) completed real value testing of their Project Agorá multi‑currency programmable platform for atomically settled wholesale cross‑border payments using wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) and tokenized commercial bank deposits. The trials involved 28 private-sector financial institutions and central banks executing approximately CHF 800,000 in transactions across 17 scenarios (corporate, interbank, intra-group, and payment‑versus‑payment) and six major currencies across Asia, Europe and North America, with end‑to‑end processing averaging 80 seconds from submission to settlement. The exercise focused on feasibility and operational performance under realistic conditions, highlighting improvements in speed, transparency, and status/routing visibility relative to existing correspondent banking architectures. However, still to be resolved are questions around legal treatment of tokenized claims, settlement finality, data‑sharing, and governance models. [BIS]

#BIS #Fintech #DFC #Tokenization #DepositTokens #CBDC #wCBDC #Payments #CrossBorder

·bis.org·Jul 30, 2026

Project Agorá Real Value Testing (BIS)

Are Stablecoins Efficient for Remittances? Evidence from a Mystery Shopping Exercise (Banca d'Italia)

Banca d'Italia published a paper that finds stablecoin-based remittances offer no systematic cost advantage over traditional channels, based on a mystery shopping exercise. Researchers transacting as ordinary customers transferred 200 USD Coin (USDC) across ten corridors linking Italy with Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, the UAE, and Japan. Total costs ranged from 0.30% to nearly 9%, with the on-chain transfer contributing a marginal 0.4%; the on- and off-ramp fiat-conversion steps, exchange fees, and funding method drove costs and duration. Speed depended on domestic payment infrastructure: instant-payment jurisdictions (Brazil's PIX, Italy's TIPS) settled end-to-end under 20 minutes, while standard bank transfers extended settlement to one or two days. Regulatory design shaped operator availability and feasibility. However, cross-corridor comparability is confounded by Argentina's parallel exchange rates and single-stablecoin, and single-transaction scope limits generalization. [Banca d'Italia]

#CryptoAssets #Remittances #Stablecoins #Payments #CrossBorder #Fintech #DFC

·bancaditalia.it·Jul 30, 2026

Are Stablecoins Efficient for Remittances? Evidence from a Mystery Shopping Exercise (Banca d'Italia)

Expansion of South Korean Deposit Token-Based Payment Infrastructure Project [KISA]

South Korea’s Internet & Security Agency (KISA) and its Ministry of Science and Information and Communication Technology (MSIT) have launched a 9.6 billion won project to operationalize wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC)-based deposit tokens for retail and public-sector payments, extending the Bank of Korea’s Project Hangang pilot into commercial use. The scheme connects existing banking and payment rails to wholesale CBDC infrastructure, allowing nine banks, eight payment firms and selected merchants to support deposit token wallets and potentially cards without replacing point-of-sale hardware. Authorities frame this as a cost-reduction and transparency play for small merchants and government spending, with plans to link programmable deposit tokens to the dBrain public finance platform and business expense programs. Key unresolved issues include scaling compliance and fraud controls for commercialization and how deposit tokens will coexist with separately regulated won stablecoins. [KISA]

#Korea #Fintech #CBDC #wCBDC #DepositTokens #DFC

·kisa.or.kr·Jul 23, 2026

Expansion of South Korean Deposit Token-Based Payment Infrastructure Project [KISA]

Modernizing UK Payment Services Regulation (HM Treasury)

HM Treasury is proposing a structurally modernized, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) centric payments regime that preserves core statutory perimeter and consumer‑protection provisions while migrating detailed firm‑facing rules from the Payment Services Regulations 2017 and Electronic Money Regulations 2011 into regulatory rulebooks to increase agility and align with evolving technologies. It brings tokenized deposits and UK‑issued qualifying stablecoins (and certain “recognized” foreign stablecoins) explicitly into the payments perimeter, using “same risk, same regulatory outcome” and clarifying overlaps with the new crypto-asset regime, including Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities) Order (RAO) Article 9M, intermediary activities and safeguarding. The framework creates unified regulated activities for fiat and tokenized payments, with permission variations for tokenized services, and seeks to support programmable and agentic payments while revisiting authentication, consent and liability mechanics. It also designs a long‑term Open Banking framework under the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, including new rights of access for variable recurring payments and potential FCA pricing powers to move some access from mandated zero‑price towards sustainable commercial terms. [HM Treasury]

#Fintech #PaymentSystems #Payments #UnitedKingdom #Regulation #Tokenization #DepositTokens #Stablecoins #CryptoAssets

·gov.uk·Jul 21, 2026

Modernizing UK Payment Services Regulation (HM Treasury)

ECB Outlines Digital Euro App as it Readies Pilot (ECB)

The European Central Bank (ECB) is to release a smartphone application to support the digital euro. In a July 17, 2026 speech, Piero Cipollone, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, described a distribution model in which banks either integrate digital euro functionality into their existing mobile banking apps or, if they do not, can deploy a Eurosystem-provided digital euro app at zero licensing cost, backed by a software development kit of reusable components for rapid integration and “develop once, deploy to many” implementation across groups. The ECB’s infrastructure will allow customers to use their current bank app for in-store, online, and person‑to‑person payments across the euro area, with banks retaining the customer interface, data, and interchange economics while the ECB supplies the common rails and a universally offered app that exceeds European Accessibility Act standards and must be made available alongside existing payment options. [ECB]

#CBDC #Eurozone #ECB #Fintech #DFC

·ecb.europa.eu·Jul 21, 2026

ECB Outlines Digital Euro App as it Readies Pilot (ECB)

Bank of Korea Accelerates Commercialization of Deposit Tokens (Yonhap News)

The Bank of Korea (BOK) is reportedly accelerating commercialization of deposit tokens under Phase 2 of Project Hangang, with real-transaction testing expected to resume as early as September 2026, as legislative progress on a won-denominated stablecoin has stalled. Phase 1 (April–June 2025) enrolled 81,000 participants and recorded 114,880 transactions; Phase 2 expands participating banks from seven to nine, adds peer-to-peer transfers, biometric authentication, and broader merchant coverage. A government pilot will test purpose-bound deposit tokens for electric vehicle charging subsidies to prevent fraudulent disbursements. A separate Ministry of Finance and Economy initiative will pilot government bond tokenization linked to the BOK's institutional central bank digital currency next year. Passage of enabling Digital Assets Act legislation remains unresolved. [Yonhap News]

#CBDC #DepositTokens #Korea #wCBDC #DFC

·yna.co.kr·Jul 20, 2026

Bank of Korea Accelerates Commercialization of Deposit Tokens (Yonhap News)

Bahamas Sand Dollar on Schedule for Full Launch in Mid-October 2020 (CBOB)

[September 25, 2020] The Central Bank of The Bahamas (CBOB) will gradually release the Sand Dollar central bank digital currency (CBDC) nationally, outside of the pilot regions of Exuma and Abaco, through authorized financial institutions (AFIs), beginning on October 20, 2020. The first phase of the rollout will focus on the immediate readiness within the private sector and cover all three financial integrity risk-based tiers of authorized accounts. Low-value personal wallets with the least demanding account opening requirements will have more restricted transaction limits, regular personal accounts will operate in line with the established flexible customer due diligence for existing banking and financial services, and business or enterprise accounts will subject to further know-your-customer (KYC) rigor and with higher limits for transactions and holdings. Phase two targets integration into government services and public utilities, intensifying over the first and second quarters of 2021. [CBOB]

#CBDC #Fintech #Bahamas #DFC

·centralbankbahamas.com·Jul 20, 2026

Bahamas Sand Dollar on Schedule for Full Launch in Mid-October 2020 (CBOB)

Bahamas Sand Dollar Launch in Exuma (Facebook)

[December 27, 2019] The Sand Dollar pilot launched in Exuma! The Central Bank of The Bahamas (CBOB) delegation was accompanied by four Sand Dollar authorized financial institutions (AFIs) Scotia Caribbean, OMNI Money Transfers, SunCash Bahamas and Kanoo Pays. [Facebook]

#CBDC #Bahamas #Fintech #DFC

·facebook.com·Jul 19, 2026

Bahamas Sand Dollar Launch in Exuma (Facebook)

Sand Dollar CBDC Officially Launched in Abaco [Nassau Guardian]

[February 28, 2020] The Central Bank of The Bahamas (CBOB) extended its Sand Dollar central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot to Abaco as a post‑Hurricane Dorian payments and financial‑inclusion measure, positioning digital fiat as a substitute where cash and branch infrastructure are impaired. The pilot focuses on retail use cases such as point‑of‑sale payments and wage access in communities cut off from banking, with nationwide rollout contingent on lessons from Abaco, Exuma, and surrounding cays. [Nassau Guardian]

#CBDC #Fintech #Bahamas #DFC

·thenassauguardian.com·Jul 19, 2026

Sand Dollar CBDC Officially Launched in Abaco [Nassau Guardian]

Project Sand Dollar: A Bahamas Payments System Modernization Initiative (CBOB)

[December 24, 2019] The Central Bank of the Bahamas (CBOB) published a paper that laid out its plan to introduce the Sand Dollar central bank digital currency (CBDC) starting with a pilot phase in Exuma in December 2019, and extending in the first half of 2020 to Abaco. The stated rationale is financial inclusion across a dispersed archipelago where branch retrenchment and tightened AML/KYC requirements have excluded remote and undocumented populations. The Sand Dollar will be a non-interest-bearing cash-equivalent but non-anonymous, fully auditable, and domestically restricted digital payment instrument. Disintermediation and run risks are addressed through holding and transaction ceilings, tiered know-your-customer (KYC) requirements, mandatory linkage of business wallets to bank accounts, and real-time monitoring with circuit breakers. NZIA is the named technology provider, with payment service providers (PSPs) and money-transmission businesses (MTBs) acting as lead intermediaries. Offline functionality will be included. [CBOB]

#CBDC #Bahamas #DFC #Fintech

·centralbankbahamas.com·Jul 19, 2026

Project Sand Dollar: A Bahamas Payments System Modernization Initiative (CBOB)

Visa Introduces Platform for Stablecoin Minting, Movement and Management (VISA)

Visa is launching the Visa Stablecoin Platform (VSP), an enterprise environment for institutions to mint, move, and manage stablecoins, initially focused on Open USD (OUSD) issued via the Open Standard. VSP provides Visa‑managed onchain wallet infrastructure, connectivity for minting, burning, holding, and transferring OUSD, and integration with Visa’s existing settlement, treasury, and currency services, effectively offering a stablecoin “wallet‑as‑a‑service” embedded in Visa’s network stack. This is structurally significant because it treats stablecoins as an additional rail within Visa’s institutional treasury and settlement workflows, with controls such as dual‑approval, audit logging, passkeys, and allow‑lists aligned to existing risk and fraud frameworks. Key unresolved issues include how regulatory treatment, balance‑sheet accounting, and interoperability with non‑OUSD stablecoins and non‑Visa infrastructures will be handled as VSP moves from beta to broader deployment. [VISA]

#Fintech #Payments #Stablecoins #VISA #CryptoAssets #DFC #OUSD

·investor.visa.com·Jul 17, 2026

Visa Introduces Platform for Stablecoin Minting, Movement and Management (VISA)

SWIFT vs Stablecoin Payment Rails (LinkedIn)

In a LinkedIn post, Victor Yaromin argues that cross‑border payment competition is shifting from individual rails to multi‑rail orchestration, contrasting SWIFT’s messaging‑only role with stablecoin rails that bundle messaging and settlement on‑chain. It explains that SWIFT messages still rely on correspondent banking, nostro/vostro structures and local settlement, whereas stablecoin transfers collapse these layers but face liquidity and on/off‑ramp constraints that limit practical impact without robust local banking connectivity. The post notes that key industry players are investing in connectivity, treasury infrastructure, compliance and payout networks so that transactions can be routed dynamically across SWIFT, instant payment systems and blockchains based on cost, speed, and reliability rather than rail ideology. The unresolved issue is whether liquidity, regulation and bank access will scale fast enough to make this orchestration genuinely universal. [LinkedIn]

#Fintech #DFC #CryptoAssets #Stablecoins #SWIFT #Payments

·linkedin.com·Jul 16, 2026

SWIFT vs Stablecoin Payment Rails (LinkedIn)

Engaging with Privacy Stablecoins: A Framework for Scalable and KYC/AML-Compliant Adoption (Bank of Italy)

The Bank of Italy published a paper by Michele Manna that argues that privacy-preserving stablecoins can become mainstream retail payment instruments only if they move from public Layer-1 chains to Layer-2 architectures that combine high throughput with constrained privacy and built-in KYC/AML compliance. It finds that today’s stablecoins remain structurally limited by low base-layer scalability, fragmented legal enforceability, and weak user privacy, while Layer-2 rollups with zero-knowledge proofs, selective disclosure, and auditable regulatory access can preserve confidentiality without sacrificing supervision. The policy significance is that compliance-by-design, not ex post forensic oversight, is the path to “no-questions-asked” acceptance at scale. The main unresolved issue is regulatory: adoption will hinge on whether supervisors treat these designs as compliant, and on whether reserve quality, governance, and privacy technology mature enough to support trust and settlement finality. [Bank of Italy]

#Fintech #AMLCFT #Privacy #Stablecoins #Italy #DFC #CryptoAssets

·uif.bancaditalia.it·Jul 16, 2026

Engaging with Privacy Stablecoins: A Framework for Scalable and KYC/AML-Compliant Adoption (Bank of Italy)

ECB Selects 36 PSPs to Join Digital Euro Pilot (ECB)

The European Central Bank (ECB) has selected 36 payment service providers (PSPs) from across the euro area to run a 12‑month digital euro pilot starting in the second half of 2027, using a beta version aligned with draft legislation but without legal‑tender status. The exercise, hosted at the ECB and 19 national central banks, will test front‑end functionality, operational processes, and user experience for person‑to‑person and person‑to‑business payments, both online and offline, including point‑of‑sale and e‑commerce use cases. Participating banks and non‑banks will act as distributors and acquirers for staff and selected merchants, effectively piloting the prospective intermediated distribution model. The move signals continued progress toward possible issuance while leaving fundamental policy decisions on legal tender status and full‑scale rollout explicitly unresolved. [ECB]

#Fintech #CBDC #Eurozone #ECB #DFC #Payments

·ecb.europa.eu·Jul 14, 2026

ECB Selects 36 PSPs to Join Digital Euro Pilot (ECB)

Stablecoins and the Future of the Dollar (Philadelphia Fed)

An article by the Philadelphia Fed's Joseph Abadi argues that reserve‑backed stablecoins, reinforced by the GENIUS Act, will entrench the dollar and position stablecoins primarily as regulated payment instruments rather than interest‑bearing stores of value. It traces the shift from early trading‑oriented and algorithmic designs, through the Terra collapse and the Silicon Valley Bank–linked run on USD Coin, to the current dominance of transparently backed, short‑term dollar‑asset portfolios that depend on public safety nets in stress. This matters because U.S. law now treats stablecoins as fully reserved “digital cash,” channels them into settlement and remittance use, and is intended to prevent disintermediation of bank deposits, even as yield‑like products via exchanges expose a regulatory gap. The unresolved issue is whether Congress closes this “yield loophole” and how cross‑border demand interacts with capital controls. [Philadelphia Fed]

#Stablecoins #Regulation #Fintech #DFC #CryptoAssets #UnitedStates

·philadelphiafed.org·Jul 13, 2026

Stablecoins and the Future of the Dollar (Philadelphia Fed)

Bolivian Government Considers including USDT as an Official Form of Payment (La Razon)

La Razon is reporting that Bolivia’s government is considering recognizing USDT as an additional settlement currency within the domestic payment system alongside the dollar and boliviano, following a 2024 Central Bank of Bolivia resolution that lifted a prior ban on crypto operations amid foreign‑exchange pressures. Authorities highlight that current usage of crypto-assets remains outside legal‑tender status and operates in a regulatory vacuum beyond the initial unblock, creating both market disruption and compliance gaps. The policy discussion is shaped by Bolivia’s placement on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) “grey list,” with explicit concern that any formal integration of USDT must address anti‑money‑laundering and counter‑terrorist‑financing (AML/CFT) vulnerabilities in crypto flows. The key unresolved issue is the design of a robust regulatory framework governing crypto‑asset use in payments. [La Razon]

#CryptoAssets #Bolivia #Stablecoins #PaymentSystems #Payments #DFC #USDT #Tether #Fintech

·larazon.bo·Jul 13, 2026

Bolivian Government Considers including USDT as an Official Form of Payment (La Razon)

U.S. Retail CBDC Ban Passed into Law (Congress.gov)

The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, a U.S. bipartisan housing law that incidentally statutorily prohibits the Federal Reserve from issuing or creating a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) (or "any digital asset that is substantially similar to a retail CBDC directly or indirectly through a financial institution or other intermediary") until December 31, 2030, became law via constitutional default after President Trump neither signed nor vetoed the bill to protest Congressional inaction on the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE Act) that would require documented proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote in U.S. federal elections. The CBDC prohibition is carefully worded to focus on retail CBDC ("widely available to the general public") and will not "prohibit any dollar-denominated currency that is open, permissionless, and private, and fully preserves the privacy protections of U.S. coins and physical currency". [Congress.gov]

#Fintech #CBDC #UnitedStates #DFC

·congress.gov·Jul 12, 2026

U.S. Retail CBDC Ban Passed into Law (Congress.gov)

Why the Digital Euro Will Fail? (LinkedIn)

Cédric Nicolas summarized a Cercle Européen de la Régulation Financière (CERF) article that argues that the retail digital euro is a late, mis‑specified response to Europe’s payment sovereignty concerns, likely to fail operationally and commercially. He notes that the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee has advanced legislation for a two‑mode (online/offline) central bank digital currency (CBDC) with a EUR 3,000 holding cap and mandatory “waterfall” transfers between central bank and commercial bank accounts. This architecture must operate across thousands of institutions and millions of merchants, all subject to a 24‑hour sweep of received digital euro balances, creating a highly complex, latency‑sensitive reconciliation engine. Nicolas contends that instant payment schemes like Wero and EuroPA already address domestic sovereignty, while account‑based design and rejection of blockchain prevent the digital euro from competing with global dollar stablecoins, suggesting a moratorium and a shift toward euro‑denominated stablecoins and deposit tokens instead. [LinkedIn]

#CBDC #Eurozone #ECB #Fintech #DFC #Stablecoins #CryptoAssets

·linkedin.com·Jul 12, 2026

Why the Digital Euro Will Fail? (LinkedIn)

SWIFT's Blockchain Ledger for Tokenized Deposits Ready for Use (SWIFT)

SWIFT announced that its new blockchain-based shared ledger for tokenized bank deposits is ready for initial live cross-border payment pilots, positioned as an extension of its existing messaging infrastructure rather than a new settlement asset. Seventeen banks across six continents will orchestrate 24/7 movements of bank-issued tokenized deposits on their own ledgers, with final settlement still occurring through current systems, aiming to improve intraday and overnight liquidity efficiency and customer payment availability without altering underlying compliance, credit, and control frameworks. Key unresolved issues include how far this model can scale beyond deposits to broader regulated digital assets and whether interoperability across competing tokenized networks will remain under SWIFT-led governance. [SWIFT]

#Blockchain #Fintech #SWIFT #DepositTokens #DFC

·swift.com·Jul 10, 2026

SWIFT's Blockchain Ledger for Tokenized Deposits Ready for Use (SWIFT)

Zelle Head to India and Unveils ZelleUSD Stablecoin (EWS)

[On June 11, 2026] Early Warning Services (EWS), the network operator of Zelle, unveiled ZelleUSD (ZLUSD), its proprietary U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin. ZLUSD will support future international payment capabilities, giving U.S. consumers more opportunities to send money to family and friends around the world. EWS is owned by Bank of America, Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, PNC Bank, Truist, U.S. Bank, and Wells Fargo. EWS runs Zelle, a U.S.-based service that enables individuals to near instantly transfer money from their bank account to another registered user's bank account using a mobile device or the website of a participating banking institution. Coincidentally, EWS announced that India will be the first country where U.S. consumers can use Zelle to send money to family and friends overseas. Further details on ZLUSD will be announced in the coming months. [EWS]

#CryptoAssets #Fintech #Payments #Stablecoins #Zelle #FastPayments #India #DFC

·web.archive.org·Jul 10, 2026

Zelle Head to India and Unveils ZelleUSD Stablecoin (EWS)

Will Canada Become Cashless? (Engert)

A paper by Engert, Shcherbakov, Stenzel and Huynh argues that, despite declining point‑of‑sale cash use, Canada is unlikely to become cashless in the foreseeable future, based on a structural equilibrium model of consumer–merchant payment choice calibrated to three waves of Bank of Canada survey data from 2013/14, 2017/18, and 2023/23. The model estimates how large an increase in the relative usage cost of cash would be required to drive cash use to insignificance, finding that this required shock is consistently large over time. This matters because cash demand (and the cash‑to‑GDP ratio) remains robust even as contactless cards and pandemic‑related shifts have reduced cash’s transaction share, implying persistent roles for cash in hoarding and for less affluent and older users. A key unresolved issue is whether future changes to banking infrastructure or card economics materially raise cash usage costs enough to alter this equilibrium. [Engert]

#Cash #Canada #DFC #Fintech

·web.archive.org·Jul 9, 2026

Will Canada Become Cashless? (Engert)

The Shift in China's CBDC (Digital Yuan) Policy and Key Implications (JRI)

Japan Research Institute (JRI) published a paper that analyzes China’s decision in late 2025 to shift the digital yuan (e‑CNY) from a non‑interest‑bearing central bank digital currency (CBDC) to an interest‑bearing commercial bank liability integrated into reserve requirements and deposit insurance (i.e., functionally a tokenized deposit). It argues this redesign aims to align bank balance‑sheet incentives, move usage toward corporate and cross‑border payments, and better plug into the mBridge cross‑border infrastructure as part of a strategy to deepen renminbi‑denominated settlement outside the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) system. Unresolved issues include whether this deposit‑based model can achieve scale amid entrenched super‑app payments, opaque mBridge usage, and continued constraints on non‑official digital currencies in China. [JRI]

#CBDC #China #DepositTokens #wCBDC #DFC

·web.archive.org·Jul 7, 2026

The Shift in China's CBDC (Digital Yuan) Policy and Key Implications (JRI)

Engaging with Privacy Stablecoins: A Framework for Scalable and KYC/AML-Compliant Adoption (BoI)

The Bank of Italy (BoI) Financial Intelligence Unit published a paper that examines the potential of privacy-preserving stablecoins ("privacy stablecoins") as retail payment instruments. It argues that stablecoins currently operating on public Layer-1 blockchains face structural limitations in terms of scalability, regulatory compliance, and privacy protection. Privacy-enhancing Layer-2 architectures may help overcome these constraints by combining greater operational efficiency with mechanisms that reconcile user confidentiality and regulatory oversight. The paper proposes a framework that relies on rollup‑based Layer‑2 designs with validity‑proof systems, data‑availability guarantees, and rule‑based selective disclosure to reconcile privacy with auditable reserves and enforceable financial integrity. [BoI]

#CryptoAssets #Fintech #AMLCFT #DFC #Privacy #Stablecoins

·web.archive.org·Jul 6, 2026

Engaging with Privacy Stablecoins: A Framework for Scalable and KYC/AML-Compliant Adoption (BoI)

ECB Publishes New Version of Digital Euro Scheme Rulebook (ECB)

The European Central Bank (ECB) published version 0.91 of the digital euro scheme rulebook. Its purpose is to provide a single set of measures, rules, and standards for the provision of digital euro payment services, and ensure a standardized digital euro payment experience across all Member States, irrespective of the country or the payment service providers (PSPs) used. It leverages, to the extent possible, on existing industry standards and procedures to improve interoperability and promote harmonization within the European payments infrastructure. [ECB] https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/digital_euro/timeline/profuse/shared/pdf/ecb.derdgpr260706_RDG_Progress_Report_July_2026.en.pdf

#CBDC #ECB #DFC #Eurozone

·web.archive.org·Jul 6, 2026

ECB Publishes New Version of Digital Euro Scheme Rulebook (ECB)

Bank of Russia Announces Banks' Readiness for Digital Ruble Widespread Use (Tass)

Bank of Russia Governor Elvira Nabiullina reported that banks and major retailers are technically ready to support broad use of the digital ruble central bank digital currency (CBDC). Preparatory work has focused on integrating systemically important banks and large merchants into the acceptance infrastructure and on developing functionality such as smart contracts and the option to host digital ruble wallets on commercial bank balance sheets rather than solely on the central bank balance sheet. Major banks will be required to allow their clients to transact with digital rubles starting on September 1, 2026. [Tass] https://tass.ru/ekonomika/27878967

#CBDC #Russia #rCBDC #Fintech #DFC

·tass.ru·Jul 4, 2026

Bank of Russia Announces Banks' Readiness for Digital Ruble Widespread Use (Tass)

A Unified Ledger in Practice: Lessons from Project Hangang (BoK)

Bank of Korea (BoK) Governor Hyun Song Shin presented a paper outlining the experiences and implications of "Project Hangang" at the ECB Forum on Central Banking in Sintra, Portugal. The paper argues that Hangang shows a unified ledger can implement tokenized reserves and deposits at scale while preserving a two‑tier monetary system and singleness of money, but only via specific architectural choices and unresolved institutional reforms. The project runs a permissioned digital currency system with wholesale central bank money natively issued on-ledger, burn‑and‑issue interbank transfers, and a strict separation of fungible currency tokens from a programmable voucher layer. Phase I demonstrated live retail and programmable public‑voucher use cases for around 80,000 users, but with crude, offline reconciliation to BOK‑Wire+ and pre‑funded liquidity. Phase II scales to ongoing operation and fiscal disbursements, while future work centers on tokenized government bonds, 24/7 intraday liquidity and cross‑border linkage via Project Agorá, contingent on clarifying the legal status of wholesale claims and the integrated liquidity framework. [ECB]

#DFC #Fintech #UnifiedLedger #Korea

·ecb.europa.eu·Jul 2, 2026

A Unified Ledger in Practice: Lessons from Project Hangang (BoK)

Project Agila: Results, Technical Findings and Policy Implications (BSP)

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) published a paper that concludes a wholesale central bank digital currency (WCBDC) on Hyperledger Fabric is technically feasible for 24/7 interbank settlement and could serve as a conditional back-up to PhilPaSS Plus, subject to major design, risk, and legal work. The two-phase Project Agila sandbox showed Oracle’s distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform can support full WCBDC lifecycle operations, programmable payments and high volumes, but with clear constraints around transaction finality, access controls, cybersecurity, and scalability at larger loads. The report frames WCBDC as reserves-on-ledger and potential high-quality liquid asset, analyzes implications under the National Payment Systems Act and BSP Charter, and identifies systemically important payment system treatment, access, holding limits, and charter changes as key policy questions. It recommends focusing next on tokenized securities settlement and institutional cross-border use cases while hardening governance, IT risk, and integration with existing financial market infrastructures (FMIs). [BSP]

#Philippines #Fintech #PaymentSystems #DFC #CBDC #wCBDC

·bsp.gov.ph·Jul 1, 2026

Project Agila: Results, Technical Findings and Policy Implications (BSP)

Stablecoins and Anonymous Money (BIS)

Gita Gopinath argues that global stablecoin usage is structurally evolving toward maximum pseudonymity, in tension with decades of policy that pushed traditional money toward transparency. Empirically, most United States dollar‑pegged stablecoins (Tether and USD Coin) are held in self‑custody wallets and increasingly transferred wallet‑to‑wallet, with regulated exchanges and issuers involved in a shrinking share of flows, even on the most identifiable chains. This pattern undermines tax collection, financial‑crime controls, capital controls, and sanctions that depend on residence and identity information, while exploiting lighter compliance burdens relative to banks. Existing United States and European frameworks focus on issuers and centralized exchanges, leaving self‑custody and offshore activity largely outside ex ante monitoring, raising unresolved questions on how far regulation should extend into wallet‑level and cross‑border infrastructure. [BIS]

#Fintech #DFC #Stablecoins #Anonymity #Privacy #FinancialIntegrity

·bis.org·Jul 1, 2026

Stablecoins and Anonymous Money (BIS)