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The IMF finds that “risks in Switzerland’s rapidly growing fintech space may not be well understood due to data gaps, resource constraints, and the authorities’ liberal approach.”tags: Fintech
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The Swiss stock exchange SIX wants the Swiss National Bank to issue a wholesale central bank digital currency to settle payments on its new digital securities trading platform. The SNB has been cool on retail CBDC, but the proposed SDX stablecoin would apply only to inter-banks payments.
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Binance and stablecoin issuer Paxos announced a partnership to integrate a new deposit gateway on Binance.com that will allow traders to exchange fiat directly for PAX on the Paxos platform and benefit from the stablecoin’s liquidity on the Binance exchange.
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The Libra investment tokens will give founding members the right to a portion of funds from a future reserve as well as incentives in Libra coin. The Libra Association is clear that it intends for the Libra coin sold to users on its blockchain to be a currency. However, the intermingling of the Libra coin as incentives for the founding members may be viewed by the SEC as integrating the offerings of the Libra investment tokens and the Libra coin, making the Libra coin a security as well from the SEC’s viewpoint.
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The unbanked do not have bank account numbers and they may not have credit cards, either. They have cash. There’s nothing in the Libra white paper about how Libra will lower fees to convert fiat cash into Libra, which is both the essential challenge of consumer banking and an explicit part of Libra’s problem statement.
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For hundreds of millions of citizens across the world, digital currencies like Bitcoin, Ripple, and potentially even the Libra don’t pose a threat to financial stability. They offer an escape from chronic financial instability and high and variable rates of inflation that result from poorly managed government monies.
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“I suspect that Libra is very much a work-in-progress. The current whitepaper seems to give only a hint of what the project might become. If so, one of the changes I suspect Facebook will have to make if it wants to get traction is to link the Libra network to already-existing units of account. A new unit of account is just too Utopian.”
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The IMF and World Bank surveyed the authorities in 189 countries on a range of Fintech-related topics and received 96 responses. They suggest that countries are broadly embracing the opportunities of fintech to boost economic growth and inclusion, while balancing risks to stability and integrity.tags: Fintech