Facebook’s Libra currency to launch next year in limited format
Facebook-led digital currency Libra is reportedly preparing to launch as early as January, in a single coin backed one-for-one by the dollar. The other currencies and the composite would be rolled out at a later point. Libra’s exact launch date would depend on when the project receives approval to operate as a payments service from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority. The Novi wallet was ready from a product perspective, but would not be rolled out everywhere initially, with the company prioritising half a dozen high-volume remittance corridors including the United States and some Latin American countries. Novi needed its own licence in each U.S. state, sand is till waiting on up to 10, including a New York Bitlicense.
Quick Bitcoin Price Recovery Looks in Doubt as Whales Move Coins Onto Exchanges
Bitcoin may have a tough time charting a V-shaped recovery to recent highs in the short term, with on-chain activity showing increased selling pressure in the market. Blockchain analytics firm CryptoQuant’s exchange inflow indicator – which measures the 144-block (roughly 24-hour) average of mean bitcoin deposits across major cryptocurrency exchanges – has risen to 2.5 bitcoin, the highest level since March 20. Meanwhile, Bitcoin has been languishing just under $17,000 for most of the day.
Iceland goes live with new RTGS and instant payments platform
The Central Bank of Iceland (CBI) has gone live with a new real-time gross settlement system (RTGS) and instant payment platform. Developed by Italy’s SIA, the new payments infrastructure has been implemented as a single platform capable of processing bank-to-bank, P2P, P2B and B2B transactions in a consolidated operating model.
Philippines Is The Latest to Approve a Digital Banking Framework
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas approved the recognition of digital bank as a new bank category that is separate and distinct from the existing bank classifications. A digital bank is defined as a bank that offers financial products and services that are processed end-to-end through a digital platform and/or electronic channels with no physical branches. Digital banks would be subject to the same prudential requirements applicable to other types of banks with recalibration to be commensurate to their business model and risk profile.
