MAS expands industry collaboration to scale asset tokenization
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) published a white paper on the first phase of its Global Layer One (GL1) tokenization initiative. GL1 is envisaged as a public permissioned distributed ledger technology (DLT) network developed by regulated institutions for use by the financial industry across jurisdictions to deploy inherently interoperable digital asset applications, governed by common standards and technology for assets, smart contracts, and digital identities. Financial institutions will be able to develop, deploy and use applications for financial industry use cases along the value chain, such as issuance, distribution, trading and settlement, custody, asset servicing, and payments. The whitepaper details the design principles, objectives, considerations and potential uses of GL1. GL1 plans to expand collaboration with more policymakers, central banks, regulators, international standards setting bodies and financial institutions as work on GL1 progresses. [Read more at the MAS]
BdF and HKMA to unlock new WCBDC cross-border opportunities
The Banque de France (BdF) and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) have launched a collaboration relating to wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC). They will delve into the study of interoperability between their wholesale CBDC infrastructure, i.e. the BDF’s DL3S and the HKMA’s Project Ensemble Sandbox, with the main focus on real-time cross-border and cross-currency payments. The cross-border experiment aims to explore how to optimize settlement efficiency of cross-border transactions, and facilitate interoperability between financial market infrastructures in different jurisdictions. [Read more at the HKMA]
Going cashless has turned Sweden into a high-crime nation?
Financial crime has become a growing risk for Sweden, with criminals taking 1.2 billion kronor in 2023 through scams, doubling from 2021. And law-enforcement agencies estimate that the size of Sweden’s criminal economy could amount to as high as 2.5% of the country’s gross domestic product. A Fortune article links these developments to switch from cash to electronic payments, and the pervasiveness of the BankID system that speeds such transactions up. It requires a six-digit code, a fingerprint or a face scan for authentication, but the system is being abused by fraudsters and scammers. Some are calling for banks to bear a bigger share of the burden when customers are defrauded, as will be the case in the United Kingdom, where, starting in October, banks will have to reimburse customers who have been conned into making transfers. [Read more in Fortune]
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