Payments
Half of central banks surveyed experienced RTGS outages last year
Most reported operating one contingency site
Waller ‘highly sceptical’ Fed needs a CBDC
Existing and planned payments system upgrades appear sufficient, governor says
The renminbi in focus: reserve managers see promise
Reserve managers see potential in the renminbi and expect the International Monetary Fund to increase its weighting at the next special drawing rights reassessment
Central banks split on non-bank access to RTGS systems
Benefits of innovation must be weighed against risks of financial instability
The six key drivers for digital currency
Dave Birch breaks down the forces that are pushing central banks towards CBDC
Central banks’ payments operations staffed more than oversight function
Advanced economies tend to have higher staff numbers in both functions
Spain’s interior vulnerable to loss of cash access – Bank of Spain
Rural areas have older populations and rely more on cash, but banks are closing branches
ECCB extends digital cash to St Vincent
CBDC pilot expanded to fifth country as it struggles with aftermath of volcanic eruption
MAS grants first crypto exchange licence
Central banks taking divergent approaches to scrutiny of crypto firms
Criteria for systemically important payment infrastructure differs
Thirty-one out of 37 central banks said they designate systemically important payment infrastructure
Oversight functions stifled by lack of resources, some central banks say
Skills and resources were identified as limiting factors, as well as the challenges of a recently formed oversight function
The IMF’s $650bn SDR allocation and a future ‘digital SDR’
Focus is needed on widening SDR use in payments and the creation of a ‘digital SDR’, to support a large allocation of ‘official’ IMF SDRs, writes Warren Coats
BIS ‘Project Nexus’ targets 60-second cross-border payments
Project seeks to link up existing fast payment systems, but several hurdles remain
Scope of payments systems oversight varies
Almost all central banks are mandated to oversee systemically important payments systems but payments networks, international remittance services and fintech providers often fall out of scope
Check under your cushions, urges Chilean central bank
Pandemic has led to shortage of coins in circulation, causing problems for retailers
People: Bank of Canada appoints top payments regulator
Iceland’s central bank appoints new CEO and World Bank names country directors
Ethiopia’s central bank launches digital payments strategy
NBE pledges to launch retail real-time payments system and consider charges on cash use
Canadian cash volumes rose in pandemic
BoC says increase driven by stockpiles of big notes and interruptions in circulation
DLT handles major transaction volume in digital euro experiment
Test processed 300,000 payments simultaneously; carbon footprint smaller than current card payments
RBI could launch CBDC pilots in ‘near future’ – deputy governor
Central bank is still researching underlying technology and design features, says T Rabi Sankar
Podcast: Payment infrastructure for a digital era
Central Banking speaks to representatives from ACI Worldwide and Mastercard about why collaboration with the private sector is crucial for payment infrastructure in the digital era
UK public has ‘reasonable’ access to cash, regulators say
But pandemic made it difficult for people to access and pay with cash, new research finds
Colombian central bank joins DLT bond issuance pilot
Technology could cut costs and offer faster processing, traceability, security and risk management
Korea selects CBDC blockchain provider
Central bank chooses telecoms company subsidiary following tender process