Bank of Mauritius Calls for Participation in Projects for its Innovation Hub (BoM)
[August 23, 2024] The Bank of Mauritius announced the upcoming launch of its Innovation Hub, inviting interested participants to register for fintech solution development projects, including Suptech/Regtech and central bank digital currency (CBDC). This collaborative platform aims to foster cutting-edge innovations for the financial, banking, and regulatory sectors in Mauritius and the region by bringing together diverse stakeholders including entrepreneurs, industry experts, technology providers, regulators, academia, and students. The initiative is designed to accelerate the growth of the fintech ecosystem by leveraging the collective expertise and creativity of these key players. [Source: BoM]
Bank of Mauritius Progresses its CBDC POC Work (BoM)
[January 10, 2024] The Bank of Mauritius (BoM) has progressed on its research for the potential implementation of a digital rupee retail central bank digital currency. In this respect, the BoM has embarked on a proof-of-concept (POC) project starting with one commercial bank, There are other POCs in the pipeline, and other commercial banks and members of the public will be invited to join the pilot in due course. [Source: BoM]
U.S. SEC Statement on Regulatory Treatment of Tokenized Securities (SEC)
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) clarified how federal securities laws apply to distributed ledger technology (DLT) based tokenized securities. It outlines two main categories: issuer-sponsored tokenized securities, where companies directly issue securities in tokenized format (with ownership records maintained on-chain, off-chain, or both), and third-party tokenized securities, where unaffiliated parties create tokenized versions through custodial arrangements (like tokenized security entitlements) or synthetic instruments (like linked securities or security-based swaps). The statement emphasizes that the format or recordkeeping method doesn't change how securities laws apply—tokenized securities face the same registration, reporting, and regulatory requirements as traditional securities. It also addresses specific considerations for security-based swaps, including restrictions on sales to non-eligible contract participants, and provides guidance on distinguishing between different types of tokenized instruments based on their economic reality rather than their labels. [Source: U.S. SEC]
Digital Pound Lab: Phase 1 Update: Overview of First Round of Use Cases (BOE)
The Bank of England (BOE) Digital Pound Lab Phase 1 has completed, showcasing various demonstration use cases for U.K. retail payments infrastructure. The BOE developed several core capabilities including verifiable credentials for privacy-preserving identity verification, payment requests via QR codes, digital cheques, allowances for delegated spending, e-commerce integrations with delivery-versus-payment features, and blockchain interoperability. External participants (Fluxpay Limited; LINK, in collaboration with Consult Hyperion; NOBO Finance, in collaboration with Applied Blockchain; and Yotra Limited) tested additional use cases such as tiered wallets, tourist wallets, point-of-sale payments, and conditional business-to-business payments. Phase 2 is now underway with applications open until March 2026, aiming to explore more innovative payment services that don't currently exist, with a showcase event planned for July 2026. [Source: BOE]
ECB Calls for Experts to Explore Roles of Digital Euro Technical Service Providers (ECB)
The European Central Bank (ECB) is inviting technical service providers (TSPs) from the EU to participate in two expert-level workshops in early March 2026 focused on their role in supporting market readiness for a potential digital euro. Following the October 2025 announcement of the digital euro project's next phase, which includes a pilot starting in the second half of 2027 and potential first issuance in 2029, these half-day workshops will explore how TSPs can support payment service providers in both distribution and acquiring/acceptance activities. Interested TSPs must apply by February 10, 2026, and participants will be selected based on factors including their EU establishment, relevant experience, and technical capabilities, with the goal of creating balanced and representative workshop groups that will help inform the upcoming digital euro pilot activities. [Source: ECB]
Tether Launches USA₮, the Federally Regulated, Dollar-Backed Stablecoin (Tether)
Tether launched USA₮, a U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin specifically designed for the U.S. market under the GENIUS Act framework. Issued by Anchorage Digital Bank (America's first federally regulated stablecoin issuer), USA₮ aims to provide institutions with a compliant digital dollar alternative while Tether's global USD₮ continues operating worldwide. The stablecoin features Cantor Fitzgerald as reserve custodian, bank-grade compliance infrastructure, and is initially available on major exchanges including Bybit, Crypto.com, Kraken, OKX, and Moonpay. This launch represents Tether's effort to strengthen U.S. dollar dominance in the digital economy while meeting American regulatory standards. The press release notes that Tether is the 17th-largest holder of U.S. Treasuries globally, ahead of sovereign holders including Germany, South Korea, and Australia. [Source: Tether]
ECB Paves Way for Acceptance of DLT-Based Assets as Eligible Eurosystem Collateral (ECB)
The European Central Bank (ECB) announced that it will accept marketable assets issued using distributed ledger technology (DLT) as eligible collateral for Eurosystem credit operations starting March 30, 2026. These DLT-based assets must meet standard Eurosystem collateral eligibility criteria and be available for settlement in systems compliant with the Central Securities Depository Regulation (CSDR) and reachable via TARGET2-Securities (T2S). The Eurosystem is also launching a work plan to explore whether DLT-native assets not represented in traditional securities settlement systems could become eligible collateral in the future, taking a staggered approach that considers market developments and evolving regulations like the DLT Pilot Regime and Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAR). This initiative reflects the ECB's commitment to supporting innovation and technological progress in financial markets while maintaining safety and efficiency standards. [Source: ECB]
Stablecoins as Eurodollars 2.0 - Toward a Shadow Dollar Standard (SSRN)
A paper posted on SSRN co-authored by the University of Toronto's Redouane Elkamhi argues that fiat-backed stablecoins function as "Eurodollars 2.0"—a new generation of offshore dollar liabilities that operate outside traditional banking regulation but remain economically linked to U.S. financial markets through reserve holdings and redemption mechanisms. Like the historical eurodollar system, stablecoins expand dollar liquidity creation and circulation beyond domestic borders, potentially strengthening dollar dominance by embedding the dollar as the default settlement asset in tokenized finance and accelerating digital dollarization in economies with weak currencies. However, this creates similar fragilities: stablecoins can experience rapid redemption runs that force reserve liquidations and transmit stress to money markets, while their global accessibility may erode monetary sovereignty in other jurisdictions. The authors propose the "Stablecoin Eurodollar System" framework to analyze how stress propagates through on-chain payment layers, off-chain reserve portfolios, and wholesale funding markets, emphasizing that the key policy challenge is not whether stablecoins exist but how convertibility into state money is governed when usage becomes systemic—particularly regarding reserve requirements, transparency standards, and whether public sector liquidity backstops should be extended to this new class of dollar instruments. [Source: SSRN]
Stablecoins Are the Future But Banks Will Survive (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg published an article that argues that stablecoins pose minimal threat to traditional banking. While banks worry that interest-bearing stablecoins will drain deposits and increase their funding costs, the article contends that historical evidence suggests stablecoins and bank deposits serve complementary rather than competing functions—similar to how bank notes and deposits coexisted during the National Banking Era. The authors note that 70-80% of bank deposits are insensitive to interest rates, with customers valuing bundled services like physical branches over higher yields, making mass migration to stablecoins unlikely. They conclude that stablecoins, backed strictly by cash and short-term Treasuries under the GENIUS Act, enhance financial stability rather than threaten it, while providing additional demand for government debt. [Source: Bloomberg]
When Monetary Innovation Makes Money Obsolete (OMFIF)
The Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) published an article by Ousmène Mandeng that argues that tokenization and instant financial transactions could make traditional money holdings obsolete. The author explains that money's value stems from transaction frictions—the delays and costs of converting assets into purchasing power. As tokenization enables near-instantaneous, frictionless conversion between interest-bearing securities and money, people would no longer need to hold money balances in advance of payments. Instead, they would convert assets to money just-in-time for transactions and immediately back again, causing money holdings to shrink toward zero while money velocity becomes unbounded. This would fundamentally reshape banking, blurring the lines between banks and investment funds, as money transitions from being a store of value to merely a transient settlement instrument within transaction flows. [Source: OMFIF]
Stablecoins in Payments: What the Raw Transaction Numbers Miss (LinkedIn)
McKinsey Financial Services published analysis reveals that while stablecoins show headline transaction volumes of up to $35 trillion annually, the actual payment activity is only about $390 billion—representing roughly 0.02% of global payments. Most reported stablecoin transactions consist of trading, internal fund shuffling, and automated blockchain activity rather than real-world payments like supplier payments or remittances. The research, conducted with Artemis Analytics, found that B2B payments dominate actual stablecoin usage at $226 billion (60% of total), with Asia-originated activity leading at $245 billion. While stablecoin supply has grown from under $30 billion in 2020 to over $300 billion today, with projections reaching $2-4 trillion by 2030, the analysis emphasizes that financial institutions need to critically evaluate raw blockchain data and invest strategically in proven use cases rather than relying on inflated volume figures to assess stablecoins' current market position and potential. [Source: McKinsey]
CBDCs and Liquidity Risks: Evidence from the SandDollar’s Impact on Deposits and Loans in the Bahamas (MDPI)
MDPI published a study that evaluates the early impact of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) on key financial indicators in The Bahamas, focusing on the introduction of the SandDollar—the world’s first fully implemented retail CBDC. Using the Synthetic Control Method (SCM), the analysis constructs counterfactual scenarios to assess the effects of CBDCs on three dependent variables: outstanding loans from commercial banks as a percentage of GDP, outstanding deposits as a percentage of GDP, and the number of deposit accounts per 1000 adults. Three separate SCM models were estimated for the period 2014–2024, incorporating a broad set of control variables reflecting financial infrastructure, economic performance, demographic characteristics, and digital readiness. The findings consistently show that the SandDollar’s implementation is associated with reductions in loan issuance, deposit levels, and deposit account ownership compared to their synthetic counterparts. These results support the hypothesis that direct CBDC models may amplify “deposit substitution” and increase liquidity risks by shifting financial activity away from commercial banks. Although the SCM provides a structured causal framework, the short post-treatment period and potential pandemic-related disruptions limit the scope of a long-term understanding. (Source: MDPI)
India's Central Bank Proposes Linking BRICS' Digital Currencies (Reuters)
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has reportedly recommended that the Indian government place a proposal to interconnect BRICS central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) on the agenda for the 2026 BRICS summit, which India will host. The proposal aims to facilitate cross-border payments for trade and tourism among BRICS members, potentially reducing reliance on dollar-based settlement systems, though the RBI maintains its efforts are not directed toward de-dollarization. Implementation would require resolution of several technical and political challenges: none of the BRICS states has fully deployed a retail CBDC beyond pilot programs, and any operational framework would necessitate consensus on interoperable technology standards, governance structures, and mechanisms to manage trade imbalances—a problem illustrated by earlier Russia-India local-currency trade arrangements where Russia accumulated large rupee balances with limited deployment options. The sources indicated that bilateral foreign exchange swap arrangements between central banks, with weekly or monthly settlements, are under consideration as one potential solution, though they cautioned that member states' reluctance to adopt technology platforms developed by other countries could impede progress. The initiative builds on the 2025 Rio declaration calling for payment system interoperability among BRICS members and would mark the first formal presentation of a CBDC linkage proposal at a BRICS leaders' meeting, though previous ambitious BRICS initiatives, including proposals for a common BRICS currency, have failed to materialize. [Source: Reuters]
ECB to Launch a Digital Euro Proof-of-Concept in 2027 (ECB)
The European Central Bank (ECB) published a presentation of its plans for a digital euro proof-of-concept (POC) program starting in H2 2027. The 12-month POC will involve a limited number of payment service providers (PSPs), merchants, and approximately 5,000-10,000 Eurosystem staff testing four use cases: person-to-person and person-to-business transactions using both online (alias/access number, e-commerce) and offline near-field communication (NFC) methods. The ECB will launch a call for expression of interest in March 2026 to select participating PSPs based on technical capabilities, market reach, and geographical representation. During the POC, transactions will use a digital means of payment that mimics the digital euro's characteristics but won't have legal tender status, operating under the Revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) framework. [Source: ECB]
Liquidity, Redemptions, and Fire Sales with a Systemic Stablecoin (IMF)
The IMF published a paper that examines the financial stability risks posed by systemically important fiat-backed stablecoins and explores regulatory design choices to mitigate them. The authors argue that if stablecoins scale to systemic size, they could create dangerous feedback loops: redemptions would force bond sales, depressing market prices and yields, which would erode the issuer's solvency and trigger further redemptions—amplifying stress across financial markets. Through both conceptual analysis and a simulation model, the paper demonstrates that capital requirements (maintaining asset-liability ratios above 100%) and cash reserve requirements are the most effective stabilizers, substantially reducing the likelihood and severity of runs and fire sales. Redemption gates and lower-duration bond portfolios provide additional but more modest protection by moderating intensity rather than frequency of crises. However, in any case, the paper concludes that international regulatory coordination will be essential to prevent arbitrage. [Source: IMF]
Kazakhstan's Digital Tenge CBDC Officially Launched (NBRK)
The National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan (NBRK) announced that its digital tenge central bank digital currency (CBDC) has officially launched. The digital tenge is now legal tender in Kazakhstan, with the NBRK as the sole issuer, and interaction with it facilitated through financial market participants. [Source: NBRK]
SG-FORGE and SWIFT Move Forward in Digital Asset Interoperability (SG-Forge)
Societe Generale-FORGE (SG-FORGE) and SWIFT completed a trial involving the exchange and settlement of tokenized bonds using both fiat and digital currencies. The EUR CoinVertible, a stablecoin issued by SG-FORGE that is compliant with European Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulations, was integrated with SWIFT's interoperability capabilities to connect blockchain platforms with traditional payment systems. The initiative demonstrated several market operations including issuance, delivery-versus-payment settlement, coupon payments, and redemption. SG-FORGE provided its open-source Compliance Architecture for Security Tokens (CAST) framework and the EUR CoinVertible stablecoin, which became the first on-chain settlement asset natively compatible with SWIFT's infrastructure. The trial, conducted with participating banks, showed that tokenized bonds can utilize existing payment systems while incorporating ISO 20022 standards. [Source: SG-FORGE]
eCurrency to Facilitate the Development of CBDC in Malawi (eCurrency)
eCurrency Mint has been selected by the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) to develop and experiment with central bank digital currency (CBDC) technology in the country. The project will utilize eCurrency's Digital Symmetric Core Currency Cryptography (DSC3) technology. DSC3 utilizes symmetric key cryptography along with layers of digital security to ensure that the resultant cryptographic objects, i.e. digital bearer instruments in the form of a cryptogram, are protected from counterfeiting. DSC3 supports a two-tier architecture and public-private partnership in which the central bank is the sole issuer of CBDC, while private sector payment networks enable its distribution, storage and transaction. [Source: eCurrency]
Europe is Rediscovering the Virtues of Cash (The Economist)
The Economist published an article that discusses how Europe, particularly Scandinavia, rapidly embraced cashless payments over the past decade, with Sweden leading the way at 90% digital transactions. However, European authorities are now reversing course and mandating that businesses must continue accepting cash. The shift comes from concerns about excluding elderly and poor populations who struggle with digital payments, as well as worries about system resilience—Spain's power cuts last spring left people unable to buy necessities, and there are fears about dependence on American payment companies like Visa and potential foreign sabotage. While cash usage had fallen dramatically (from 79% of eurozone transactions in 2016 to 52% in 2024), the EU now recognizes that physical money provides crucial backup when digital systems fail. [Source: The Economist]
Central Banking published an article that discusses the global trend of central banks prioritizing instant payment systems over central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) for improving domestic and cross-border payments, with 93.6% of surveyed central banks favoring instant payments domestically and 95.5% for cross-border transactions. While both technologies offer similar benefits like real-time transactions, instant payment systems are generally less complex and costly to implement than CBDC infrastructure, though CBDCs use central bank money rather than commercial bank money. Countries like the Bahamas, Jamaica, and Nigeria launched CBDCs primarily to address financial inclusion and outdated payment systems, but have faced adoption challenges, while successful instant payment systems like Brazil's Pix and India's UPI have proven highly effective. Experts suggest that for most jurisdictions, instant payment systems combined with digital identity frameworks provide sufficient solutions for retail payments, though CBDCs may have specific use cases in wholesale payments, cross-border transactions, or as backups to existing systems. The main challenges for both approaches include scalability issues for cross-border linkages, disintermediation risks for banks, and the need for harmonized legal and regulatory frameworks across jurisdictions. [Source: Central Banking]
Interoperability Standards for Digital Assets (MIT/SODA)
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Standards Organization for Digital Assets (SODA) published a white paper that addresses the need for global standards to enable tokenized real-world assets to move seamlessly across different blockchain networks and traditional financial systems. The White Paper describes the need to create neutral, open standards through three workstreams: a data model defining asset information, common digital functions for smart contracts, and legal/governance frameworks ensuring regulatory compliance. The paper draws parallels to historical standardization successes like the internet's TCP/IP protocol and shipping containers, arguing that without interoperability standards, tokenization will only deliver isolated efficiencies rather than transforming global finance. Contributors from major institutions including Chainlink, Fireblocks, Wormhole, and others emphasize that true scalability requires standardized approaches to cross-chain transfers, identity verification, compliance, and connectivity with existing financial infrastructure, ultimately enabling the tokenized asset market by 2030 to reach its full potential. [Source: SODA]
Ethiopia Unveils 5-Year National Digital Payment Strategy (NBE)
[December 9, 2025] The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) Ethiopia published a draft National Digital Payment Strategy 2026–30. The five-year framework outlines a roadmap to build a trusted, innovative, and integrated digital payments ecosystem. Part of the study involves studying stablecoins, cryptocurrencies, and central bank digital currency (CBDC), map their current use in Ethiopia, and identify concrete, locally viable use-cases for future policy and product development. Furthermore, white papers will be published and, if deemed necessary, required regulatory frameworks and pilot programs will be implemented. [Source: NBE]
Wyoming Debuts First State-Issued Stable Token (Markets Media)
Wyoming has launched the Frontier Stable Token ($FRNT), marking the first state-issued stablecoin in the United States. Reserves will be held in trust by Wyoming and invested exclusively in U.S. dollars and short-duration U.S. Treasuries, managed by Franklin Templeton. The token is available for purchase on Kraken (Solana blockchain) and Rain (Avalanche blockchain), utilizing LayerZero for cross-chain interoperability and Fireblocks for security. [Source: Markets Media]
A Framework for Understanding the Vulnerabilities of New Money-Like Products (FRB)
The Federal Reserve (FRB) published a paper that introduces a framework for analyzing vulnerabilities in new money-like products by comparing them to money market funds (MMFs), which have well-documented risks. The authors examine five key features that contribute to vulnerabilities: liquidity transformation, threshold effects, moneyness (perceived safety and liquidity), contagion risks, and reactive investors. They apply this framework to three emerging products: money market ETFs (MMETFs), tokenized MMFs, and stablecoins. The analysis finds that MMETFs have similar liquidity transformation to MMFs but reduced threshold effects due to market pricing; tokenized MMFs largely mirror their underlying MMF vulnerabilities but could become more money-like if token transfers can effect ownership changes; and stablecoins present mixed risks, with the 2025 GENIUS Act likely to standardize payment stablecoins and align them more closely with MMF characteristics. The framework emphasizes that vulnerabilities arise from combinations of these features rather than individual attributes, and that as these novel products evolve and become more familiar to investors, their non-structural features—particularly their perceived moneyness and investor base composition—will likely shift significantly. [Source: FRB]
RAKBANK Receives In-Principle Approval to Launch a Dirham-Backed Stablecoin (RAKBANK)
RAKBANK became the latest United Arab Emirates (UAE) bank to received in‑principle approval from the central bank to issue a fully reserved, 1:1 Dirham-backed stablecoin. Al Maryah Community Bank secured in-principle approval in October 2024, and full licensing in December 2024 for its AE Coin, and Zand (an "AI-powered bank) received full approval in November 2025 for its Zand AED stablecoin. The Central Bank of the UAE’s Payment Token Services Regulation restricts payment tokens to Dirham-backed or specifically approved fiat-referenced stablecoins for onshore payments, effectively steering merchant crypto acceptance toward Dirham stablecoins. In parallel, Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority has finalized Version 2.0 of its activity-based rulebooks, including requirements for fiat‑referenced stablecoins issued by Dubai‑incorporated virtual asset service providers, creating a distinct but complementary regime for Dubai and its free zones. [Source: RAKBANK]
Lloyds and Archax Complete UK’s First Public Blockchain Transaction Using Tokenised Deposits (Lloyds)
Lloyds Banking Group has completed the United Kingdom's first public blockchain transaction using tokenized deposits. The transaction involved Lloyds issuing tokenised deposits on the Canton Network (a public blockchain for regulated financial markets) to purchase a tokenised Gilt from Archax, demonstrating how traditional banking can integrate with blockchain technology. Lloyds believes that this innovation offers businesses key benefits including instant settlement, the ability to earn interest while maintaining regulatory protections, access to wider securities trading, automated smart contracts, and enhanced transparency—all while preserving the security of traditional deposits under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. [Source: Lloyds]
Tokenization Is a Renaissance of Ownership (Ledger Insights)
Ledger Insights published an opinion piece that argues that tokenization represents a return to direct asset ownership similar to 17th-century bearer instruments, rather than a futuristic innovation. The author, CEO of tokenization startup Libeara, contends that traditional financial institutions misunderstand the market—over 80% of their $1 billion in tokenized assets went to crypto-native buyers seeking sovereignty and direct ownership, not traditional investors looking for efficiency gains. The key insight is that the real opportunity lies in bringing regulated financial products (like Treasury bills) to existing on-chain capital seeking yield, rather than trying to convince traditional investors to adopt blockchain technology—essentially building the bridge in the opposite direction from current institutional strategies. [Source: Ledger Insisghts]
Stablecoin Remittance Inflows versus Government Macroeconomic Policy (LinkedIn)
In a LinkedIn post Tarique Khan argues that stablecoin policy debates overlook a fundamental macroeconomic tension: while stablecoins may offer operational efficiencies in cross-border payments, they risk undermining foreign exchange reserve accumulation in countries dependent on remittance inflows. Khan uses Bangladesh's 2.5% incentive for formal remittance channels as evidence that central banks already compete against informal transfer networks (hundi, hawala, padala) that keep hard currency offshore. Stablecoins potentially accelerate this problem—a migrant worker can purchase USDC abroad and transfer it for peer-to-peer conversion locally, satisfying the household recipient while bypassing the regulated banking system entirely. However, a key refinement to this analysis suggests the reserve leakage mechanism depends primarily on where conversion occurs rather than on stablecoins themselves: if regulated banks or payment institutions control the on/off-ramps, the same technology could channel foreign exchange into official reserves more efficiently rather than divert it offshore. This reframes the policy question from technology adoption to institutional control over conversion, custody, and settlement infrastructure. The divergent regulatory approaches across jurisdictions reflect these varying concerns: remittance-dependent economies (Bangladesh, Philippines, Mexico) prioritize maintaining visible inflows; strict capital control regimes (China) focus on preventing unregulated movement; high-inflation economies (Turkey, Argentina) may tolerate stablecoins as inflation hedges. The central challenge remains reconciling stablecoins' operational advantages with governments' need to maintain reserve buffers and monetary policy levers—though whether regulatory capture of conversion points is economically sustainable against decentralized alternatives, and whether centralized intermediation negates the purported efficiency gains, requires further examination. [Source: LinkedIn]
Lessons from the SVB Failure and Its Impact on Stablecoins (FRB)
The Federal Reserve (FRB) published a paper that examines how the March 2023 Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) failure triggered a crisis in the stablecoin market, particularly affecting USDC, the second-largest stablecoin. When Circle (USDC's issuer) announced it couldn't access $3.3 billion in reserves held at the failed SVB, USDC lost its dollar peg and dropped to 86 cents as redemption requests surged and primary market operations shut down over the weekend. The crisis spread through DeFi via automated smart contracts called Peg Stability Modules (PSMs), which allowed one-to-one exchanges between USDC and other stablecoins like Dai, USDP, and GUSD—causing these otherwise unaffected stablecoins to also lose their pegs. The situation stabilized only after federal authorities announced full protection for all SVB depositors. The paper highlights three key lessons: the potential for two-way contagion between traditional finance and crypto markets, the fragility of stablecoins even with high-quality backing assets during stress periods, and how automated smart contracts can create dangerous interlinkages that amplify systemic risk across the DeFi ecosystem. [Source: FRB]
Lessons from Global CBDC Pioneers for Rwanda's Next Leap (RBA)
The Rwanda Bankers' Association (RBA) published an analysis of pioneering central bank digital currency (CBDC) implementations in the Bahamas (Sand Dollar), Jamaica (JAM-DEX), and Nigeria (eNaira). Using quantitative pre- and post-launch data analysis, the study finds that theoretical fears of bank disintermediation did not materialize—commercial bank deposits actually grew significantly in all three countries after CBDC introduction. The research reveals that CBDC rollouts coincided with broader macroeconomic shifts including tighter monetary policy and economic rebounds, while direct effects on inflation remained statistically insignificant. However, the primary challenge across all cases was achieving widespread public adoption rather than financial instability, with uptake remaining extremely low despite technical readiness. The paper concludes that for Rwanda, currently in its CBDC Proof-of-Concept phase, success will depend less on mitigating theoretical risks and more on delivering a compelling value proposition that addresses the country's specific challenges including limited smartphone ownership (34.3%), low internet access (29.8%), and the need for enhanced payment system resilience, financial inclusion, and reduced cross-border remittance costs. [Source: RBA]
