DBS, JPMorgan and Temasek to establish cross-border interbank payments platform
JPMorgan is partnering with Singapore’s DBS and Temasek to form Partior — Latin for “to distribute and share” — to apply distributed ledger technology (DLT) to reach final, instantaneous cross-border interbank settlements. The Partior platform will also enable “atomic” or instantaneous settlement of payments for various types of financial transactions. The platform will start with a focus on facilitating flows primarily between Singapore-based banks in both USD and SGD, with the intent to expand service offerings to other markets and in various currencies. Partior’s platform will also be designed to complement ongoing central bank digital currency (CBDC) initiatives and use cases.
FCA: Evaluation report on digital sandbox pilot
“The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published an evaluation report of the digital sandbox pilot. The report sets out the findings of the pilot, including how it accelerated the development of innovative products and solutions within financial services, as well as key lessons learned from the pilot phase. Among other things, the report finds that access to a digital testing environment successfully accelerated development times for the vast majority of participants, as well as benefiting other aspects such as improving product design and refining early-stage business models.”
Discussion paper on blockchain and smart contracts in insurance
The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) published a discussion paper on blockchain and smart contracts in insurance which aims to provide a high-level overview of risks and benefits of blockchain and smart contracts in insurance from a supervisory perspective. It found that blockchain has the potential to reduce duplication of processes, increase process automation and efficiency, enhance customer experiences, and improve data quality. On the other hand, it may trigger new risks to insurers, supervisors, and consumers.
April Global Fintech Monthly Monitor
Also, if you haven’t already done so, please check out the April edition of my Global Fintech Monthly Monitor. Make sure to click on the link at the bottom of the post to see it in its full glory, including tables with bonus information! Also, please send feedback as this is still a work in progress.
*For those interested in intra-day updates and news that didn’t make the Daily Digest cut, please check out my Diigo fintech bookmarks: https://www.diigo.com/user/kiffmeister/Fintech
