Not a strong public-policy case for CBDC issuance in Australia
The Reserve Bank of Australia still considers that at present there is not a strong public-policy case for central bank digital currency (CBDC) issuance, given that the electronic payments system in Australia compares very favourably with those in many other countries and access to cash remains good. Nonetheless, they will continue to closely watch the experience of other jurisdictions. They are also continuing to research the technological and policy implications of a wholesale form of CBDC and work to develop a proof-of-concept with external parties to explore aspects of wholesale CBDC, building on research they did in their Innovation Lab last year.
Aave takes number one slot in total value locked, beats MakerDAO
Decentralized lending and borrowing protocol Aave has taken the number one slot in total value locked (TVL), snatching that position from MakerDAO. Aave’s TVL, or the total amount of crypto-assets deposited into the protocol for lending and borrowing purposes, is now $1.45 billion, according to tracker DeFi Pulse. Aave is the second project to beat MakerDAO in TVL. On June 20, Compound overtook the DAI stablecoin issuer, with about $500 million in TVL at the time as compared to MakerDAO’s $486 million. The yield farming craze in recent weeks has shot up the TVL of almost all DeFi protocols, to currently stand at over $6.9 billion. In February, that amount was only $1 billion.
Under lockdown UK open banking payments surged 800%
Financial API provider TrueLayer has recorded an eight fold increase in U.K. consumers using Payment Initiation (PI) to pay for goods and services online between March and July. PI is a new form of online payment enabled under the second European Union Payment Services Directive (PSD2) that allows customers to make payments directly through online banking. 88% of the growth was from people with bank accounts held at traditional financial institutions, with account holders at challenger banks such as Monzo and Revolut accounting for 12%.
UK FCA wants to include crypto firms in financial crime reporting rules
The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) proposed broadening annual financial crime reporting obligations to include all crypto-asset exchanges and custodian wallet providers. The regulator says that by extending its reporting rules to a wider range of firms, it will be able to deepen its understanding of which firms may have intrinsic money laundering risks due to their activities.
ConsenSys Acquires J.P. Morgan’s Quorum to Advance Enterprise Blockchain Adoption
JP Morgan and ConsenSys announced that the Quorum open source project would be acquired and managed by ConsenSys as part of a strategic investment by JPM. ConsenSys Quorum is an open source protocol layer that serves as a foundation for businesses to build public or private Ethereum-based enterprise solutions.
Posted from Diigo: https://www.diigo.com/user/kiffmeister/Fintech
