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Central banks already issue digital money, but only to a select group of financial institutions. Central bank digital currency would extend this to households and firms. This column examines the proposal for such currency and assesses the opportunities and risks. It argues that while preparations for the launch of Libra have not proceeded according to plan, it has become clear that for central banks, maintaining the status quo is not an option.
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Compliance appears to have been the primary cause for MasterCard’s decision to leave Libra. The Libra association’s key members reportedly refused to commit to “not do anything that is not fully compliant with local law.” Specifically, Banga pointed to anti-money laundering, know your client and data management regulation. Another concern was Libra’s business model. The association does not make it clear how it would make money, with Banga noting that “when you don’t understand how money gets made, it gets made in ways you don’t like.””
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This paper by Katharina Pistor calls attention to emergent forms of digital sovereignty in the hands of private entities. The major focus of this paper will be monetary sovereignty, but it uses this example to draw general implications for statehood in the digital age.
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“Venezuelan customers say that making their payments for Zelle in dollars is “easy and fast” in a context of economic crisis and current service failures.”
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Goldman Sachs is close to striking a deal with Amazon to offer small business loans to its US customers as the Wall Street bank turns to Big Tech to extend a push on to Main Street.
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“A complete analysis of token definitions, their main uses, the future of decentralized applications and token-economy, in an evolutionary path that goes beyond the 3.0 paradigm, crosses that of Industry 4.0, to attain a Society 5.0 concept. These are the contents of this article that, starting from the examination of the term “token”, very often confused in its own meaning, wants to offer the reader a scenario vision, supported by an analysis of the fundamental principles.”
Kiffmeister’s Fintech Daily Digest 02/03/2020
