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Bank of Korea Launches Full-Scale Implementation of "Project Han River" Phase 2 (BOK)

The Bank of Korea (BOK) announced Phase II of Project Hangang. It aims to trial large-scale, won-pegged deposit tokens built on a wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) layer, to cut transaction costs for both major corporations and small merchants burdened by credit card fees, building on Phase I’s system build out and 2025 live pilot. Participating banks will expand from 7 to 9 and merchant coverage will be significantly broadened. Phase II will test person to person transfers, biometric authentication, and automatic deposit token funding and sweep out. It will also deepen programmability, using digital vouchers in blockchain based treasury pilots such as an electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure project, and continue experiments with AI agent payments and tokenized bonds and equities. The 2026 agenda includes support for government treasury execution, and external consulting on regulation and operating models, with a Phase III vision of low cost universal payments, programmable financial services, and infrastructure for Korea’s broader digital asset ecosystem. [BOK]

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

·bok.or.kr·Mar 19, 2026

Bank of Korea Launches Full-Scale Implementation of "Project Han River" Phase 2 (BOK)

Central Bank of Barbados Delays BiMPay Go-Live Date (CBOB)

The Central Bank of Barbados (CBOB) announced a revised June 12, 2026 go‑live date for BiMPay, the national instant payment system (IPS), following slower‑than‑planned interoperability testing across nine participating institutions. The Bank asserts core infrastructure readiness but prioritizes institution‑level reliability, setting binding user‑acceptance testing deadlines and ruling out further extensions. The move underscores governance discipline in IPS rollout and leaves open how lagging participants will be managed without disrupting existing Automated Clearing House services. [CBOB]

#Barbados #Interoperability #Payments #FastPayments #DFC #Fintech

·centralbank.org.bb·Mar 18, 2026

Central Bank of Barbados Delays BiMPay Go-Live Date (CBOB)

How Canada Can Shape the Future of Stablecoins and Digital Payments (CD Howe Institute)

The CD Howe Institute published an article in which Peter MacKenzie and Mark Zelmer argue that Canada must rapidly operationalize its Stablecoin Act and consider a central bank digital currency (CBDC) to avoid ceding payment-system sovereignty to U.S. dollar-linked stablecoins enabled by the GENIUS Act. They note that GENIUS-backed U.S. stablecoins and foreign exchanges could become core Canadian payment rails, undermining monetary sovereignty, domestic oversight, and data access, while Canada’s high-level Stablecoin Act leaves key issues on reserves, operations, and foreign platforms unresolved. The authors propose a function-based, two-track regime that treats pure payment stablecoins as fully backed payment instruments under Bank of Canada oversight and keeps tokenized deposits in the banking framework, complemented by Bank of Canada liquidity lines and a CBDC settlement layer to preserve singleness of money and cross-platform interoperability. They stress that the open question is whether Canada will implement detailed, “comparable” rules fast enough to shape international arrangements rather than import foreign standards. [CD Howe Institute]

#Stablecoins #Canada #Regulation #Payments #Fintech #DFC #Sovereignty

·cdhowe.org·Mar 18, 2026

How Canada Can Shape the Future of Stablecoins and Digital Payments (CD Howe Institute)

Which is the Fairest of all Tokenized Monies? (OMFIF)

OMFIF published an article in which Ousmène Mandeng pitches tokenized money market fund (MMF) shares as an alternative tokenized settlement asset. They offer bankruptcy‑remote, interest‑bearing claims on sovereign or high‑quality assets rather than bank balance sheets. By enabling instant delivery‑versus‑delivery transfer and collateralization without title transfer, tokenized MMFs could shift institutional liquidity management from episodic subscription/redemption to continuous circulation, potentially easing run dynamics and unlocking high‑quality collateral for intraday liquidity and cross‑border settlement. Constant net asset value MMFs invested in government securities could function as par settlement instruments with favorable prudential treatment, positioning them as strong competitors to tokenized deposits and stablecoins in wholesale use cases. Key uncertainties concern the robustness of distributed ledger technology, the status of the on‑chain versus off‑chain legal register and the prudential and regulatory classification of these instruments, which will determine their scalability and systemic role. [OMFIF]

#MMFs #Tokenization #OMFIF #Fintech #DFC #Payments

·omfif.org·Mar 18, 2026

Which is the Fairest of all Tokenized Monies? (OMFIF)

Stablecoins Are Coming for FX Markets (Delphi Digital)

Delphi Digital argues that dollar stablecoins are rapidly gaining share in FX, especially in long‑tail emerging market corridors where legacy correspondent banking makes cross‑border payments slow and expensive, with most costs driven by infrastructure rather than FX risk. In corridors like Argentina or Nigeria, fees and spreads are largely compensation for pre‑funded nostro/vostro accounts, delayed settlement, credit risk, and multiple intermediaries, so stablecoin rails that offer atomic, near‑instant settlement in tokenized dollars can undercut banks and keep corridors viable. The piece highlights that new infrastructures show how on‑chain FX could settle in seconds instead of days. However, it stresses that fiat on/off‑ramps remain the main bottleneck, since bank wires still run on legacy batch rails and regulatory frictions, implying that stablecoins will not displace major FX pairs soon but are already rebuilding broken payment rails in under‑served corridors. [Delphi Digital]

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

·x.com·Mar 17, 2026

Stablecoins Are Coming for FX Markets (Delphi Digital)

The Curious Case of the Stablecoin Sandwich (LinkedIn)

G+D's Lars Hupel posted an article on LinkedIn that argues that the “stablecoin sandwich” model for cross‑border payments—converting local currency to a (mostly USD) stablecoin, sending it on‑chain, then converting back—largely replicates traditional correspondent banking rather than solving its hardest problems, because liquidity is concentrated in a few USD‑denominated stablecoins and most currencies lack deep stablecoin markets, so efficiency gains are modest and partly driven by regulatory arbitrage rather than technology; meanwhile, central banks are pursuing more promising alternatives like interlinking instant payment systems, broadening access to real-time gross settlement systems (RTGSs) to non‑banks, and building multilateral central bank digital currency (CBDC) platforms such as mBridge and Project Agorá, which more directly tackle fragmentation and access in cross‑border payments. [LinkedIn]

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

·linkedin.com·Mar 17, 2026

The Curious Case of the Stablecoin Sandwich (LinkedIn)

Public vs. Private Payment Platforms: Market Impacts and Optimal Policy (Bank of Canada)

The Bank of Canada published a paper that studies competition between a welfare-maximizing public payment platform (e.g., fast payment system) and a profit-maximizing private platform. It finds that the public system should not simply aim to be as cheap as possible, because if it undercuts the private one too aggressively it can actually reduce the overall benefits from having both systems in the market. When a public system enters, more people and businesses use electronic payments and consumers are generally better off, but private providers tend to respond by putting more of their fees onto merchants. The authors also argue that if the public platform is required to cover its costs but forbids fees on consumers, it must load more of those costs onto merchants via fees, which could then reduce merchant participation, which in turn weakens the value of the platform to consumers and erodes the potential welfare gains from having the public system in the first place. [Bank of Canada]

#CBDC #FastPayments #Payments #PaymentSystems #CentralBanking

·bankofcanada.ca·Mar 13, 2026

Public vs. Private Payment Platforms: Market Impacts and Optimal Policy (Bank of Canada)

Emerging Capabilities in Fast Payments: NFC and Offline Payments (World Bank)

The World Bank published a technical note outlining how fast payment systems (FPS) can incorporate near-field communication (NFC) and offline payment capabilities as “extended” channels and instruments, largely implemented at the payment service provider (PSP) level rather than in central infrastructure. The paper argues that NFC can shift consumer-initiated payments from cards and QR codes toward FPS by providing tap-based, tokenized, real-time credit transfers across payer‑ and payee‑initiated models, while raising device, scheme-rule, and fraud‑management questions. Offline models—deferred, temporary person‑to‑person, and person‑to‑merchant wallets—are positioned as critical for transit, low‑connectivity regions, and inclusion, but they introduce double‑spend, liability, and supervision challenges that require tight limits, secure elements, and explicit policy stances on where offline FPS should remain an exception versus a mainstream channel. [World Bank]

#Fintech #Payments #FastPayments #WorldBank #Offline

·fastpayments.worldbank.org·Mar 13, 2026

Emerging Capabilities in Fast Payments: NFC and Offline Payments (World Bank)

Stablecoin = Fracturedcoin (FT)

This FT article critiques stablecoins’ ability to function as “single” money because issuance across multiple permissionless blockchains makes nominally identical tokens non‑fungible, fragments liquidity, and forces risky, costly bridging for interoperability. It argues that validator compensation via congestion rents and gas‑fee auctions means users internalise scaling costs, so network effects that underpin efficient payment instruments are weakened and stablecoins resemble a set of siloed instruments rather than a unified monetary asset. The piece suggests this undercuts claims that distributed consensus can substitute for a central bank’s common ledger, and raises a policy question: as stablecoin issuers obtain direct access to central bank payment rails, should regulators treat these liabilities as peripheral crypto instruments or integrate them into a consolidated, tightly supervised monetary framework?

#Stablecoins #BIS #CryptoAssets #Fintech

·ft.com·Mar 12, 2026

Stablecoin = Fracturedcoin (FT)

Tokenomics and Blockchain Fragmentation (BIS)

The BIS published a Hyun Song Shin paper that develops a global-games model of distributed technology technology (DLT) network validator coordination to show that higher decentralization requires disproportionately higher validator rents funded by user fees. This implies that capacity must be endogenously constrained and congestion is structurally necessary rather than incidental. This tokenomic structure induces entry of lower-security, lower-fee chains that attract users priced out of incumbent ledgers, generating persistent fragmentation across base layers and layer‑2s and eroding the network effects that normally drive convergence on a single medium of exchange. As a result, for example, nominally identical stablecoins on different chains are non‑fungible, bridged rather than natively interoperable, so liquidity and acceptance remain chain‑specific despite common issuers and regulatory regimes. The paper argues that a central‑bank‑anchored trust and settlement layer is required to deliver monetary integration, rather than relying on fully decentralized consensus. [BIS]

#CryptoAssets #Tokenization #Fintech #Stablecoins #DLT #DFC #BIS

·bis.org·Mar 11, 2026

Tokenomics and Blockchain Fragmentation (BIS)

Appia Roadmap for European Tokenized Finance (ECB)

The European Central Bank (ECB) published the Appia roadmap, a strategic workplan to design a tokenized wholesale financial ecosystem in Europe in which central bank money remains the settlement anchor. It will complement its Pontes distributed ledger technology (DLT) settlement solution due to launch in late 2026. Appia will, through structured engagement with market participants and public bodies, generate by 2028 a blueprint for tokenized market infrastructures, including choices between shared versus interconnected DLT networks and associated governance and standard-setting. It seeks to preserve effective monetary policy transmission, safeguard financial stability and payment system functioning, and reduce market fragmentation while enabling smart-contract based innovation in securities and payments. It also has a strategic autonomy dimension, aiming to keep euro-denominated financial market infrastructures competitive and interoperable in a tokenized world. The key open questions concern optimal network configuration, European governance arrangements and how far private infrastructures should rely on central bank money in tokenized form. [ECB]

#Tokenization #DLT #wCBDC #Fintech #DFC #Europe #ECB

·ecb.europa.eu·Mar 11, 2026

Appia Roadmap for European Tokenized Finance (ECB)

Stablecoins and the Missing Infrastructure Layer (LinkedIn)

Tord Coucheron posted a paper that argues that stablecoin growth reflects a structural response to cross‑border payment frictions in correspondent banking, not a fundamental demand for new private money. It shows that liquidity fragmentation, prefunding costs, and opaque, sequential settlement make traditional cross‑border transfers slow and capital‑intensive, making privately issued tokenized settlement claims economically attractive despite reserve and governance risks. It then introduces a real‑time multi‑currency financial market infrastructure (FMI) in central bank money, where banks hold multiple currencies and settle via payment‑versus‑payment (PvP), driving settlement costs toward zero and preserving the deposit‑funded banking model, monetary policy transmission, and monetary sovereignty. [LinkedIn]

#Stablecoins #CrossBorder #Payments #Fintech #DFC

·linkedin.com·Mar 11, 2026

Stablecoins and the Missing Infrastructure Layer (LinkedIn)

National Bank of Kazakhstan Digital Tenge Annual Review (NPCK)

The National Payment Corporation of Kazakhstan (NBK) published its annual review of the Digital Tenge project, which has shifted from research (2021) to limited production (2023) and scaled pilots in state-related payments (2025) within a broader National Digital Financial Infrastructure strategy. Programmable applications are focused on government spending, tax administration (“Digital VAT”), and targeted subsidies, rather than large-scale retail distribution. It operationalizes central bank digital currency (CBDC) as fiscal and public-finance infrastructure, tightening traceability, automating conditionality, and integrating with identification, anti-fraud, and open banking rails, rather than as a standalone payments product. The open question is how far Kazakhstan will extend CBDC use beyond state-linked flows and cross-border experiments once the 2026 roadmap and full-scale production decisions are implemented. [NPCK]

#CBDC #Fintech #DFC #Programmability #Kazakhstan

·npck.kz·Mar 11, 2026

National Bank of Kazakhstan Digital Tenge Annual Review (NPCK)

Stablecoin Shocks (IMF)

The IMF published a paper that constructs narrative, high-frequency measures of “stablecoin shocks” based on USDT/USDC market-cap changes around stablecoin-specific news to identify their causal effects on U.S. financial markets. A 1 percent stablecoin demand shock persistently lowers short-term Treasury yields (about 1.9 bps at the 1‑month tenor), with limited effects on longer maturities. The broad dollar index modestly depreciates and crypto prices rise, with a small, economically minor increase in the S&P 500. Equity effects are heterogeneous: payment providers and crypto platforms benefiting from stablecoin infrastructure see gains, while large and community banks and major retailers show no significant response, implying markets do not yet price material disintermediation risk. Results are robust across identification strategies, event definitions, and econometric specifications. [IMF]

#CryptoAssets #Stablecoins #UnitedStates #IMF #USDC #USDT #FinancialStability #DFC

·imf.org·Mar 7, 2026

Stablecoin Shocks (IMF)

Bank of Canada Completes DLT-Based Bond Issuance Experiment (BOC)

The Bank of Canada (BOC) published a paper on the Project Samara live experiment where Export Development Corporation (EDC) issued a Canadian dollar (CAD) bond on a permissioned distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform and settled it in wholesale central bank digital money (W‑CAD), to test end‑to‑end tokenized issuance, T+0 atomic delivery-versus-settlement (DvP) settlement, secondary trading, and lifecycle management on a shared infrastructure. Built on Hyperledger Fabric with separate bond and cash ledgers linked by Hyperledger Weaver hash time lock contracts (HTLCs), the platform consolidates workflows that in traditional CAD markets span multiple intermediaries and systems. The project confirms technical feasibility and shows meaningful efficiency and risk‑management gains from automation, reduced reconciliation, real‑time positions, and atomic settlement. However, it finds higher liquidity costs, added operational and governance complexity, new key‑management and cyber risks, and significant legal/regulatory frictions. [BOC]

#CBDC #DLT #SettlementSystems #Canada #Settlement #Fintech #Tokenization #DFC #wCBDC

·bankofcanada.ca·Mar 6, 2026

Bank of Canada Completes DLT-Based Bond Issuance Experiment (BOC)

Targeted Report on Stablecoin and Unhosted Wallet P2P Transactions (FATF]

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) published a report that concludes that stablecoins, now a major share of on‑chain and illicit virtual‑asset activity, create elevated money laundering/ terrorist financing/ proliferation financing (ML/TF/PF) risks, especially via P2P transfers through unhosted wallets outside direct anti-money laundering/ countering the financing of terrorism/ counter proliferation financing (AML/CFT) controls. FATF affirms that stablecoins are virtual assets and that issuers, intermediaries and relevant DeFi actors must be regulated as virtual asset service providers (VASPs) or financial institutions under Recommendation 15, with licensing, supervision, Travel Rule compliance and sanctions screening. Jurisdictions are encouraged to build stablecoin‑specific regimes, require issuers to embed technical controls (freeze, burn, allow/deny‑lists) and strengthen cross‑border supervisory cooperation and data collection on P2P use. The report stresses expanded use of blockchain analytics, targeted controls on transfers to unhosted wallets, structured public‑private partnerships, and detailed red‑flag indicators to guide monitoring and investigations. [FATF]

#FATF #Stablecoins #P2P #AMLCFT #Regulation #FinancialIntegrity #CryptoAssets #DFC #Fintech

·fatf-gafi.org·Mar 5, 2026

Targeted Report on Stablecoin and Unhosted Wallet P2P Transactions (FATF]

New Recommendations for Public Payment Preparedness (Riksbank)

Sveriges Riksbank issued new recommendations on “public payment preparedness,” urging households to see themselves as part of Sweden’s total defence and to maintain multiple means of payment so essential purchases can continue during disruptions, crises or war in an increasingly digitalized environment. It advises adults to hold at least SEK 1,000 in cash at home (in mixed denominations) for roughly a week’s essential spending and to use cash periodically so cash infrastructure remains robust, to have at least two payment cards linked to different card networks (e.g. Visa and Mastercard), to ensure access to a mobile payment service such as Swish that relies on different infrastructure than cards, and to keep physical payment cards and PINs accessible even if mobile wallets are normally used. The recommendations feed into the Riksbank’s broader work on national payment contingency and will also feature in the Payments Report 2026, due on March 12, 2026. [Riksbank]

#Sweden #Payments #Cash #Resilience #Fintech #DFC

·riksbank.se·Mar 5, 2026

New Recommendations for Public Payment Preparedness (Riksbank)

Call for Payment Service Providers to Participate in Digital Euro Pilot (ECB)

The European Central Bank (ECB) has opened applications for euro area licensed payment service providers (PSPs) to join a twelve‑month digital euro pilot in the second half of 2027. 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, be selected based on eligibility plus weighted criteria (compliance status, technical capacity, market presence, geographic/segment coverage, delivery track record), and then work directly with national central banks and Eurosystem teams. The ECB has published technical and procedural documentation and PSPs must apply by May 14, 2026, with the whole exercise framed as preparatory and conditional on future EU legislation and a separate decision to issue a digital euro. [ECB]

#CBDC #ECB #Eurozone #Fintech #DFC

·ecb.europa.eu·Mar 5, 2026

Call for Payment Service Providers to Participate in Digital Euro Pilot (ECB)

Digital Pound Design Phase Progress Update (BOE)

The Bank of England (BOE) published a progress update on the digital pound design phase, which is focusing on four workstreams: a joint assessment of need, policy and public‑interest impacts, commercial viability, and operational feasibility; a detailed blueprint covering product design, roles of intermediaries, interoperability in a multi‑money ecosystem, product roadmap, alias services and offline functionality; targeted experiments and proofs of concept (including a prototype ledger architecture and the Digital Pound Lab, where firms test use cases such as POS payments, conditional B2B payments, tourist wallets and programmable features via allowances and locks); and extensive engagement with industry, academia and civil society to refine requirements, privacy protections and user safeguards. This work is tightly linked to the UK National Payments Vision and the new Retail Payments Infrastructure Board, with an emphasis on interoperability between bank deposits, tokenized deposits, stablecoins and a potential digital pound, and on preserving access to cash, prohibiting “programmable money”, and embedding strong privacy and data‑protection guarantees in both law and system architecture. The design phase runs to 2026, and the Bank and HM Treasury plan to publish the blueprint assessment and a decision on whether to proceed with building a digital pound later in 2026. [BOE]

#CBDC #UnitedKingdom #Fintech #DFC

·bankofengland.co.uk·Mar 4, 2026

Digital Pound Design Phase Progress Update (BOE)

Stablecoins and Monetary Policy Transmission (ECB)

The European Central Bank (ECB) published a paper on rising stablecoin adoption's impact on monetary policy by reshaping banks’ funding structures and, in turn, the strength and composition of transmission channels. As stablecoins alter banks’ liability mix towards wholesale funding, the traditional bank lending channel is strengthened (through tighter funding constraints) but the deposit channel is weakened (by changing how deposit rates and quantities react to policy rates), thereby undermining the predictability of the overall pass‑through from policy rates to financial conditions. If foreign‑currency (especially USD‑pegged) stablecoins became widely used in the euro area, they would increase banks’ reliance on foreign‑currency wholesale funding and “import” foreign monetary and risk conditions into domestic liquidity and spending, eroding monetary sovereignty and making it harder for the central bank to stabilize inflation and output, particularly in stress episodes. [ECB]

#ECB #Eurozone #Stablecoins #Fintech #CryptoAssets #MonetaryPolicy #FinancialStability #DFC

·ecb.europa.eu·Mar 4, 2026

Stablecoins and Monetary Policy Transmission (ECB)

The New Financial Ecosystem and the Role of Central Banks (BOJ)

Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Ueda Kazuo provided updates to the central bank's digital payments projects. The BOJ is still investigating retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) with an eye towards providing a “digital form of cash” if needed, and has set up (and now plans to reorganize) a CBDC Forum to draw on private‑sector expertise and consider the future of payments more broadly. Internationally, the BOJ is participating in Project Agorá, exploring tokenized deposits and smart‑contract‑based cross‑border interbank payments on blockchains, and domestically it has launched a sandbox to test settlement in central bank current account balances on blockchain‑based systems, including links to existing infrastructures and use cases such as interbank and securities settlement. [BOJ]

#CBDC #Blockchain #Fintech #Payments #PaymentSystems #DFC #Japan

·boj.or.jp·Mar 3, 2026

The New Financial Ecosystem and the Role of Central Banks (BOJ)

Bank of Korea Calls for Banks-Only Issuance of Won-Denominated Stablecoins (EToday)

The Bank of Korea has reportedly submitted a report to South Korea’s National Assembly Strategy and Finance Committee that urged that only licensed commercial banks be allowed to issue won-denominated stablecoins at the outset, citing money‑laundering, financial stability, and FX‑regulation circumvention risks. The Bank of Korea suggests non‑bank issuers could be considered later once their risk‑absorbing capacity is assessed. South Korean lawmakers are currently debating the next phase of digital-asset legislation, which includes provisions on stablecoins. [EToday]

#CryptoAssets #Fintech #Korea #Regulation #Stablecoins #DFC #FinancialStability #CFM

·etoday.co.kr·Mar 3, 2026

Bank of Korea Calls for Banks-Only Issuance of Won-Denominated Stablecoins (EToday)

Stablecoin Disintermediation (FRBNY)

The New York Federal Reserve Bank (FRBNY) published a paper that develops a theory and provides empirical evidence that payment stablecoins disintermediate banks not only by drawing deposits away from traditional institutions but also by transmitting significant liquidity stress to the banks that service stablecoin issuers. Using matched data between on‑chain issuance/redemption activity of a large U.S. dollar stablecoin and Fedwire interbank payments, the authors identify “partner banks” that hold stablecoin deposits and process flows for the issuer. They show that after new partnerships form following the 2023 crypto‑bank failures, these banks experience large, persistent increases in interbank payment volume (about 67%) and in intraday reserve balance volatility tightly linked to daily primary market stablecoin activity, implying that stablecoin-related payments act as frequent liquidity shocks. To manage these shocks, partner banks operate “narrowly,” holding substantially higher reserve balances—roughly 1.5 billion dollars more on average and a much larger reserves‑to‑assets ratio—while their loan share of assets falls by about 14 percentage points relative to similar banks, indicating a crowding‑out of lending capacity. The authors argue that this liquidity channel of disintermediation broadens the ways stablecoins can weaken bank deposit franchises, concentrate reserves in a few institutions, complicate the central bank’s task of gauging system‑wide reserve demand, and potentially propagate or amplify run dynamics from stablecoins to banks during stress events. [FRBNY]

#Stablecoins #Fintech #CryptoAssets #Financial Stability #MonetaryPolicy #UnitedStates

·newyorkfed.org·Mar 2, 2026

Stablecoin Disintermediation (FRBNY)

ID Meets Instant: Enabling Trusted, Inclusive Fast Payments through Digital ID (World Bank)

The World Bank published a paper that presents a conceptual model for integrating digital identity into fast payment systems (FPSs) and introducing new ways to make and receive payments through verifiable credentials. The objective is to explore how interoperability between digital ID and payments can address enduring challenges related to fraud prevention, customer onboarding, authentication, and the seamless integration of identity into transaction flows. The paper highlights how identity-linked credentials can support broader inclusion and functionality. Credentials can be delivered through multiple access channels, including digital ID wallets, interoperable wallets, payment service provider (PSP) applications, QR codes, and single-use tokens, ensuring usability across different devices and connectivity conditions. The model also supports controlled delegation, enabling individuals, businesses, or automated agents to act on behalf of users under clearly defined and auditable rules. The paper situates this framework within international experience, noting that while some jurisdictions have begun linking digital ID and payments, most implementations remain narrowly focused on onboarding and know-your-customer processes. At the same time, the paper recognizes that integrating identity and payments at scale raises significant governance, legal, and operational challenges. Effective implementation requires robust frameworks for consumer protection, data privacy, liability, and institutional coordination, as well as careful attention to user experience and trust. [World Bank]

#WorldBank #Fintech #Payments #FastPayments #DigitalID

·openknowledge.worldbank.org·Mar 2, 2026

ID Meets Instant: Enabling Trusted, Inclusive Fast Payments through Digital ID (World Bank)

A Model of Monetary Singleness (BOE)

The Bank of England (BOE) published an analytical framework for studying the singleness of money. It's based on a three-period banking model where banks choose both the unit of account of their debt and whether it can be used as a medium of exchange. The framework suggests that small deviations from singleness may still be consistent with the efficient allocation, consistent with the fact that small deviations from par already arise today (for example, ATM withdrawal fees). However, inefficient equilibria are more likely to occur if the newly introduced forms of digital money are issued by private entities with distinct business models from incumbent financial institutions. The model also highlights the stabilizing roles of both cash and central bank reserves in promoting the singleness of money. Reserves ensure issuers share a consistent asset base, while cash provides a backstop by enabling interoperability through central bank money. [BOE]

#Stablecoins #Fintech #Money #DFC

·bankofengland.co.uk·Feb 28, 2026

A Model of Monetary Singleness (BOE)

Rwandan CBDC Project Moves to Pilot Phase (BNR)

The National Bank of Rwanda (BNR) published the results of its five‑month central bank digital currency (CBDC) proof of concept (PoC) with BNR staff that tested a retail e‑FRW across online, offline (dual‑offline smartcards), and USSD channels, confirming technical feasibility and the potential to enhance payment resilience, inclusion, and innovation. User research showed strong interest in using e-FRW if it is secure, easy to use, and widely accepted, with offline functionality viewed as essential for continuity in low‑connectivity areas. The PoC also explored wallet‑level programmability, ran a national ideathon to gauge ecosystem readiness, and simulated cross‑border atomic settlement, all within a two‑tier model that preserves the roles of financial institutions. Key lessons concern device diversity, onboarding, support processes, privacy and cybersecurity requirements, and the need for strong legal underpinnings, leading to a planned 12‑month pilot in Kigali, a secondary city, and rural sites to test real‑world use cases, integration, and cross‑border corridors under clearly defined key performance indicators (KPIs) and risk controls. Giesecke+Devrient (G+D) was the central bank's technology partner on the project. [BNR]

#Rwanda #CBDC #Fintech #DFC #Offline #G+D

·bnr.rw·Feb 27, 2026

Rwandan CBDC Project Moves to Pilot Phase (BNR)

ASEAN’s Digital Payment Revolution: A New Frontier for Regional Integration, Thailand (IMF)

The IMF published a paper that reviews how rapid digital payment adoption in ASEAN—especially Thailand’s PromptPay-led fast payments and QR linkages—is reshaping domestic and cross-border transactions by lowering costs, boosting financial inclusion, and supporting SMEs, while introducing new cyber, fraud, and AML risks. It documents a surge in domestic fast and QR payments, the build‑out of bilateral QR and fund-transfer linkages under ASEAN’s Regional Payment Connectivity and Local Currency Transaction frameworks, and emerging multilateral architectures such as BIS’s Project Nexus and wholesale CBDC platform mBridge to overcome the limits of fragmented bilateral models. Using Thai data for 2020–24, the empirical analysis finds that cross‑border QR usage rises when local‑currency–USD volatility is higher, suggesting local‑currency QR payments help users manage FX risk compared with card payments settled via the dollar, and that QR tends to substitute for traditional bank and card channels where financial access is weaker. The authors argue that scaling interoperable, local‑currency cross‑border QR schemes—alongside better data use for SME credit, stronger regional AML/CFT coordination, and harmonized data protection—can deepen ASEAN trade integration and strengthen financial resilience to external shocks. [IMF]

#Thailand #ASEAN #Fintech #CBDC #QR #Payments #DFC

·imf.org·Feb 27, 2026

ASEAN’s Digital Payment Revolution: A New Frontier for Regional Integration, Thailand (IMF)

UK FCA Selects 4 Firms to Test Stablecoin Innovation in its Regulatory Sandbox (UK FCA)

The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has selected four firms—Monee Financial Technologies, ReStabilise, Revolut and VVTX—from 20 applicants to test stablecoin services in its Regulatory Sandbox, focusing mainly on issuance and use cases including payments, wholesale settlement and crypto trading, so that these products can be trialled in real-world conditions with safeguards while FCA specialists provide feedback and refine proposed rules to ensure stablecoins can be trusted for payments, settlement and trading, inform the UK’s final stablecoin regime due later in 2026, and align with the broader crypto regulatory roadmap and related initiatives such as the Digital Securities Sandbox and the new cryptoasset authorisation regime starting from 2026 with full implementation by October 2027. [UK FCA]

#Stablecoins #Regulation #Sandboxes #UnitedKingdom #Fintech #CryptoAssets #DFC

·fca.org.uk·Feb 27, 2026

UK FCA Selects 4 Firms to Test Stablecoin Innovation in its Regulatory Sandbox (UK FCA)

BNP Paribas Uses Public Blockchain for Money Market Fund (Markets Media)

BNP Paribas Asset Management has issued a tokenized share class of an existing French‑domiciled money market fund on the public Ethereum blockchain using its AssetFoundry platform, but with a permissioned model that restricts holdings and transfers to authorized participants to remain within regulatory requirements. This follows an earlier tokenized money market fund in Luxembourg on a private blockchain and is structured as a one‑off intra‑group pilot in which BNP Paribas Asset Management acts as issuer, Securities Services as transfer agent and wallet/key operator, and AssetFoundry as the tokenization and connectivity layer, allowing the group to test end‑to‑end issuance, transfer agency and public‑chain connectivity while maintaining governance, investor protection and operational robustness. [MarketsMedia]

#Fintech #CryptoAssets #Tokenization #Blockchain

·marketsmedia.com·Feb 25, 2026

BNP Paribas Uses Public Blockchain for Money Market Fund (Markets Media)

U.S. SEC Loosens Broker-Dealer Stablecoin Rules (SEC)

The U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) issued an FAQ relating to the treatment of payment stablecoins under the broker-dealer net capital rule (Exchange Act Rule 15c3-1). A "payment stablecoin" is a USD–denominated stablecoin meeting specific regulatory and reserve criteria that change once the GENIUS Act takes effect. The new treatment sharply reduces how much capital firms must reserve against payment stablecoins—from 100% of their market value to a 2% haircut, effectively treating them like money market instruments with a ready market. [SEC]

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

·sec.gov·Feb 25, 2026

U.S. SEC Loosens Broker-Dealer Stablecoin Rules (SEC)