The Bank of Israel to allow fintechs to connect to supervised payment systems
The Bank of Israel published a “Payment Systems Access Guide” that aims to provide information to nonbank entities, including fintechs, interested in participating in the core supervised payment systems alongside traditional banks. Its purpose is to present these entities with a comprehensive overview of the various options available for operating within the payment systems in Israel, along with the associated conditions and requirements. The guide seeks to facilitate the decision-making process and the joining procedures for these entities. [Read more at the Bank of Israel]
Central Bank of Nigeria approves CBDC use for remittances
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has introduced the eNaira as a payment option for inbound remittances in an effort to help increase the adoption of the central bank digital currency (CBDC). It’s part of the CBN’s efforts to liberalize the payout of diaspora remittances and promote the adoption of the eNaira. International money transfer operators (IMTOs) will need to apply for a one-time “no-objection” and open Merchant Wallets through the central bank to offer customers the possibility of using the eNaira for cross-border remittances. [Read more at the CBN]
ADB wraps up PoC for cross-border bond settlement using blockchain
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) completed its Project Tridecagon proof-of-concept (PoC) probing into the viability of cross-border delivery-versus-payment (DVP) bond settlements using blockchain technology. It connected key market infrastructures: central banks’ real-time gross settlement systems (RTGS) and central securities depositories’ (CSD) book-entry systems, but did not use central bank digital currency (CBDC). The settlement of cross-border securities transactions was proven in principle and across different vendor solutions, but full application may depend on necessary changes to legal and regulatory prescriptions which could take years. [Read more at the ADB]
JP Morgan rolls out JPM Coin blockchain payments in euro
JPM Coin, which JP Morgan launched in 2019 to move dollars, has gone live with euro transactions. Germany’s Siemens AG conducted the first euro payment on the platform. JPM Coin can only move money between JPM branches or to other JP Morgan clients. Hence the bank refers to the solution as blockchain-based bank accounts. JPM Coin is a tiny part of JPMorgan’s payments business. The bank has used it to process about $300 billion of transactions since its launch, versus the nearly $10 trillion of payments it processes overall on a daily basis. [Read more at Ledger Insights]
*For those interested in intra-day updates, check out my searchable Diigo Fintech developments database, which is also a good place to go to query for past developments: https://www.diigo.com/user/kiffmeister/ART.
Upcoming conferences, webinars and speaking engagements:
- I’ll be participating in Currency Research’s in-person Central Bank Payments Conference and Global Payments Summit in Cape Town from June 26 to 30. [Register here and here respectively]
- I’ll be lecturing at the Digital Euro Association (DEA) Digital Money Academy on July 27, 2023. [Register here]
Kiffmeister’s global central bank digital currency monthly monitor
Just a reminder that I produce a monthly digest of central bank digital currency (CBDC) developments exclusively for the official sector. So for any of you out there who work for a central bank, ministry of finance or international financial institution who would like to receive it by email on the first business day of every month, please DM me on LinkedIn or email me at chronicles@kiffmeister.com.
The Sovereign Official Digital Association (SODA) is a technology-agnostic firm offering advisory services at the intersection of central banking, digital finance and the web3 industry, aiming to make public digital money a reality. SODA believes institutions in the existing financial ecosystem should have access to the tools and resources they need to move from discussion to action. SODA offers ‘real life’ use cases to help test digital money and drive adoption as central banks and other public institutions explore the future of a more financially inclusive world powered by interoperable blockchain-based networks. SODA would love you to join us on this journey – please get in touch (chris@sodapublicmoney.org).
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