Month: April 2025

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (20250430)

~ kiffmeister

UK Treasury unveils draft crypto-asset regulatory framework (Bitcoin.com)

“The UK Treasury (HMT) published a draft Statutory Instrument (SI) and a Policy Note detailing the UK’s upcoming financial services regulatory framework for crypto-assets, including stablecoins. Following proposals outlined in October 2023 and reaffirmed in November 2024, the draft SI establishes new regulated activities, such as operating crypto-asset trading platforms and issuing stablecoins, mandating authorization and oversight by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The Policy Note clarifies the intended policy outcomes, with additional provisions for market abuse and admissions and disclosures regimes to follow. The UK Treasury welcomes technical feedback on the draft SI until May 23, 2025, to refine the regulations.” [Read more at HMT]

SEC punts decisions on XRP, DOGE ETFs (CoinTelegraph)

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has postponed deciding on whether to approve two proposed crypto-asset exchange-traded funds (ETFs) holding Dogecoin and XRP until June 2025. The postponements were responses to March requests from U.S. exchanges NYSE Arca and Cboe BZX Exchange to list Bitwise’s Dogecoin (DOGE) and Franklin Templeton’s XRP ETFs, respectively. [Read the DOGE response here and the XRP one here]

Digital commerce payment preferences by region (Fuse)

Fuse published a guide to digital commerce payment preferences by region, unpacking the key trends shaping payment behaviors in key regions around the world: APAC, Europe, Latin America, MEA, and North America. Globally, digital commerce’s share of total sales was 20.3% in 2024 and expected to surpass 21% in 2025. Digital wallets make up half of all digital commerce payments (by value) around the world. Credit and debit card usage, separate from their usage in digital wallets, account for 22% and 12%, respectively, but there is a lot of regional variance (see figure below). [Read more at Fuse]

And just a reminder that I produce a monthly digest of central bank digital currency (CBDC) developments exclusively for the official sector. So (only) if you work at a central bank, ministry of finance or international financial institution (e.g., the BIS, IMF, OECD, World Bank) and 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 john@kiffmeister.com.

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (20250429)

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Stablecoins and Crypto Shocks: An Update (NY Fed)

The New York Federal Reserve Bank (NY Fed) published an article that discusses the evolution and growth of stablecoins, noting their significant increase in market capitalization since 2019, primarily concentrated in Tether and USDCoin. It highlights a shift in collateral towards U.S. Treasury securities and reverse repurchase agreements and finds that stablecoins, especially riskier ones, experience capital inflows following large increases in bitcoin prices, reflecting a link between stablecoin demand and overall crypto ecosystem activity, which updates previous findings about outflows during negative bitcoin price shocks for riskier stablecoins. [Read more at the NY Fed]

Thanks to Lars Hupel, here are two central bank digital currency (CBDC) survey-based research reports from Eurozone country central banks:

Survey of potential users of the digital euro: new evidence from Slovakia (NBS)

[October 12, 2024] The National Bank of Slovakia (NBS) surveyed 1200 people, asking about people’s awareness and willingness to use the digital euro. 34% of respondents have heard of the digital euro; 26% intend to use it. They found that the likelihood of its usage depends on trust in institutions such as the central bank, and preferences for cash payments, in addition to standard socio-economic factors. They also investigated whether respondent’s answers are linked to political preferences and trust in the central bank. To quote: “liberals are more inclined to consider using the digital euro, while EU skeptics are significantly less likely to do so”. The survey also reveals that privacy and transaction security are among the top concerns for potential users. The majority of respondents plan to allocate nearly 20% of their net monthly income to digital euro holdings. [Read more at the NBS]

Assessing consumer CBDC adoption in Luxembourg: a micro-simulation approach (BCL)

[January 2025] Banque Centrale du Luxembourg (BCL) published a paper that simulated consumer adoption of CBDC based on data from the 2022 Study on the Payment Attitudes of Consumers in the Euro area (SPACE) survey of payment habits. The micro-simulation classified 1% of consumers as cash-only, 22% as cash-preferring, 29% as cashless-preferring and 47% as cashless-only. Our theoretical results suggest that if CBDC is accepted by all retailers, then cashless-preferring consumers will adopt it instead of cash, but adoption by other consumers would also depend on CBDC design, cost, security and their use of credit cards. If CBDC transactions can be funded by drawing cash directly from the user’s bank payment account (i.e., via a “a waterfall” mechanism), 24% of the value of total payments will be in CBDC. If CBDC transactions can be funded via a direct link to consumer credit (e.g. drawing on the user’s credit card) 92% of total payment values will be made in CBDC. [Read more at the BCL]

And just a reminder that I produce a monthly digest of central bank digital currency (CBDC) developments exclusively for the official sector. So (only) if you work at a central bank, ministry of finance or international financial institution (e.g., the BIS, IMF, OECD, World Bank) and 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 john@kiffmeister.com.

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (20250428)

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FRB withdraws guidance for banks related to their crypto-asset activities (FRB)

The U.S. Federal Reserve Board (FRB) rescinded its 2022 supervisory letter establishing an expectation that the banks it regulates and supervises provide advance notification of planned or current crypto-asset activities. As a result, the FRB will no longer expect banks to provide notification and will instead monitor banks’ crypto-asset activities through the normal supervisory process. The FRB is also rescinding its 2023 supervisory letter regarding the supervisory nonobjection process for state member bank engagement in dollar token activities. [Read more at the FRB]

Unlike the other U.S. banking regulators, the Fed did not roll back its guidance that blocks banks from engaging directly with crypto-assets. This creates operational challenges for banks looking to offer crypto custody services, particularly around covering gas fees for on-chain transactions — a standard practice for crypto custodians but restricted under guidance that was left in place. The Fed also continues to prohibit banks from issuing stablecoins on permissionless blockchains, while the other regulatory agencies rolled that back. [Read more from Caitlin Long on X]

And just a reminder that I produce a monthly digest of central bank digital currency (CBDC) developments exclusively for the official sector. So (only) if you work at a central bank, ministry of finance or international financial institution (e.g., the BIS, IMF, OECD, World Bank) and 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 john@kiffmeister.com.

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (20250425)

~ kiffmeister

CBDCs included in the EAC Draft Cross-Border Payment System Masterplan (EAC)

The East African Community (EAC) Draft Cross-Border Payment System Masterplan was validated by its eight member countries (Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania). The Masterplan aims to enhance the speed, security, affordability and integration of payment systems across the region. It tackles key obstacles such as fragmented regulations, high transaction costs, and limited interoperability by outlining twenty targeted initiatives. These include a regional instant retail payment switch, and exploring using central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) for regional transactions. [Read more at the EAC]

And just a reminder that I produce a monthly digest of central bank digital currency (CBDC) developments exclusively for the official sector. So (only) if you work at a central bank, ministry of finance or international financial institution (e.g., the BIS, IMF, OECD, World Bank) and 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 john@kiffmeister.com.

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (20250424)

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Nigeria, China to sign digital currency deal to reduce dollar reliance (Vanguard)

Nigeria will reportedly sign a deal to enable a direct conversion of naira to digital renminbi (RMB) according to Nigeria-China Strategic Partnership (NCSP) Director-General Joseph Tegbehas. Speaking at a conference in Lagos, he said the agreement could reduce Nigeria’s dependence on the United States dollar. The NCSP jointly established ivy the Chinese and Nigerian governments in November 2024 under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu following agreements reached with President Xi Jinping at FOCAC 2024, aiming to deepen economic, trade, and investment relations between the two nations. It serves facilitate high-impact partnerships that align with Nigeria’s development priorities and China’s Belt and Road Initiative. But there has not yet been an announcement on the NCSP website regarding the RMB deal. [Read more at Vanguard]

Bank of Korea “Project Hangang River” is a deposit token pilot (Business Korea)

At a briefing held at the Bank of Korea on April 21, 2025, Deputy Governor Lee Jong-ryul reportedly pointed out that the “Project Hangang River” three-month pilot that started on April 1, 2025, is more about experimenting with “deposit tokens,” a stablecoin issued by domestic commercial banks, than the central bank digital currency (CBDC) issued by the Bank of Korea. As of April 20, 51,766 electronic wallets capable of using deposit tokens had been opened, and a cumulative total of 29,251 transactions had occurred from April 1 to April 20. [Business Korea]

Project Meridian FX: exploring synchronized settlement in FX (BIS)

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) published the results of the Project Meridian FX experiment that demonstrated the atomic settlement of FX transactions between different wholesale payment infrastructures across jurisdictions, and between an real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system and a distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform. Using an emulated UK real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system, the project connected to three experimental interoperability solutions from the Eurosystem: DL3S (developed by the Bank of France), TIPS Hash-Link (developed by the Bank of Italy) and the Trigger Solution (developed by the Deutsche Bundesbank). In each case, payment-versus-payment (PvP) FX settlements were successfully orchestrated. [Read more at the BIS]

And just a reminder that I produce a monthly digest of central bank digital currency (CBDC) developments exclusively for the official sector. So (only) if you work at a central bank, ministry of finance or international financial institution (e.g., the BIS, IMF, OECD, World Bank) and 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 john@kiffmeister.com.

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (20250423)

~ kiffmeister

Project Promissa: tokenization of promissory notes (BIS)

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub published a report on Project Promissa, a proof of concept (POC) that explored promissory note tokenization on a distributed ledger technology (DLT) based platform, in partnership with the Swiss National Bank and World Bank. Member country payments to multilateral development banks are usually paid in cash or by paper-based promissory notes. The current manual processing of the latter’s life cycle events (issuance, encashment, updates and archiving), are time-consuming, cumbersome and require constant reconciliation. The POC effectively addressed key pain points, with no major issues technical identified, but further study of the legal aspects identified in the preliminary review is needed before moving beyond the POC phase. [Read more at the BIS]

PayPal unlocks rewards for holding PayPal USD stablecoins (PayPal)

Starting in Summer 2025, PayPal will pay U.S. users 3.7% annually in rewards on holdings of PayPal USD (PYUSD) in their PayPal or Venmo wallets. Users will be able to immediately use any rewards received to send to other users, fund international transfers, exchange for fiat, or make purchases at millions of merchants with PayPal Checkout. [Read more at PayPal]

And just a reminder that I produce a monthly digest of central bank digital currency (CBDC) developments exclusively for the official sector. So (only) if you work at a central bank, ministry of finance or international financial institution (e.g., the BIS, IMF, OECD, World Bank) and 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 john@kiffmeister.com.

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (20250422)

~ kiffmeister

Bank of Korea to add P2P transfers to WCBDC trials by October (Business Korea)

The Bank of Korea (BOK) “Project Hangang River” wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) backed tokenized deposit pilot is reportedly preparing to launch a second phase as early as October. The current three-month (April 1 to June 30, 2025) phase involves about 100,000 participants, and is limited to person-to-business (P2B) payments (for goods and services at online and offline merchants). In the next phase, person-to-person (P2P) transfers will be added, along with expanded use cases and a full rollout of a digital voucher program for welfare payments by local governments. [Read more at BusinessKorea]

Circle announces regulated stablecoin cross-border payments network (Circle)

Circle will be launching the Circle Payments Network (CPN) to connect financial institutions to enable real-time settlement of cross-border payments using regulated stablecoins. CPN will require participants to meet strict eligibility standards, including licensing, AML/CFT compliance, financial risk management, and cybersecurity protocols. By leveraging USDC, EURC, and other regulated stablecoins, CPN will enable seamless connectivity to domestic real-time payment systems worldwide, while upholding the compliance, security, and trust required for financial institutions to meet their regulatory obligations. Powered by smart contract infrastructure and modular APIs, the network will enable third-party developers to build advanced modules, app services, and automated financial workflows directly on top of CPN. [Read more at Circle]

And just a reminder that I produce a monthly digest of central bank digital currency (CBDC) developments exclusively for the official sector. So (only) if you work at a central bank, ministry of finance or international financial institution (e.g., the BIS, IMF, OECD, World Bank) and 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 john@kiffmeister.com.

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (20250419)

~ kiffmeister

Majority of Dutch people willing to use digital euro (DNB)

De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) surveyed 2,000 Dutch consumers to find out whether they would be willing to use an offline-digital euro (D€) that was as private as cash (funds are stored locally and no third party involved in a payment). Participants were randomly allocated funds to allocate across cash, debit cards and D€ for household expenses over a month. Two-thirds used at least some of the D€, with 75% of non-users not seeing any added value in it, plus 55% expressing unfamiliarity with it, and 48% a lack of trust in it. 25% of non-users cited privacy concerns. Only 28% of users said that the extra privacy of an offline D€ was a reason for using the D€. Also, half the participants were told there was a 50% that their debit cards would be nonfunctional over the month. Those in this group chose to keep not only more cash but also more D€ in their wallets. Also, 42% of participants said they would prefer to keep their D€ on a payment card; 33% would prefer an app and 26% have no preference. [Read more at the DNB]

And just a reminder that I produce a monthly digest of central bank digital currency (CBDC) developments exclusively for the official sector. So (only) if you work at a central bank, ministry of finance or international financial institution (e.g., the BIS, IMF, OECD, World Bank) and 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 john@kiffmeister.com.

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (20250418)

~ kiffmeister

I was perusing some recent IMF reports and came across some central bank digital currency (CBDC) developments that I missed…

Haitian central bank puts CBDC work on the back burner (IMF)

[December 10, 2024] The Bank of the Republic of Haiti (BRH) conveyed to IMF staff, in the context of its 2024 Article IV consultation, that it does not plan to immediately implement CBDC. However, it stressed the importance of having put a placeholder in the central bank framework, in anticipation of future implementation. IMF staff argued that devoting time and resources to considering a digital money is premature at this stage, given other pending priorities and indicated that if the BRH decides to proceed it should consider all aspects of the project’s desirability and feasibility, including a robust evaluation of costs and risks, before proceeding. [Read more at the IMF]

BEAC requests IMF CBDC technical assistance (IMF)

[March 11, 2025] Banque des États de l’Afrique Centrale (BEAC) has requested IMF technical assistance to explore the feasibility of introducing a CBDC. BEAC serves six central African countries which form the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo) all of whom use the CFA franc which is pegged to the euro (€1 = CFA 655.957). The BEAC has set up a CBDC working group that will coordinate with the other subregional institutions with the aim of developing a coherent and appropriate regulatory framework to monitor and manage the new risks associated with the emergence of digital payment methods. [Read more at the IMF]

And just a reminder that I produce a monthly digest of central bank digital currency (CBDC) developments exclusively for the official sector. So (only) if you work at a central bank, ministry of finance or international financial institution (e.g., the BIS, IMF, OECD, World Bank) and 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 john@kiffmeister.com.

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (20250417)

~ kiffmeister

Belarus to introduce digital ruble in H2 2026 (Interfax)

The National Bank of Belarus (NBB) reportedly plans to launch a digital ruble in the second half of 2026, starting with “economic agents” and expanding to government agencies and individuals in 2027. The central bank is cooperating very closely with Russian central bank and its central bank digital currency (CBDC) efforts to facilitate digital ruble cross-border transactions. Also, the NBB is working closely with government authorities to ensure that CBDC transactions can be tracked along the entire chain. [Read more at Interfax]

Kyrgyz central bank granted right to issue digital som (24.KG)

Kyrgyz Republic President Sadyr Japarov signed the constitutional law that will enable the National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic (NBK) to launch a digital som pilot project and create a legal basis for the CBDC. The law was adopted by the Parliament on March 20, 2025. The law defines the digital som as the national currency of the Kyrgyz Republic in digital form, which is legal tender in the country. The central bank is granted the exclusive right to issue the digital som, and will establish the procedure for its issue and circulation, as well as organize and ensure functioning of the digital som platform. [Read more at 24.KG]


On November 20, 2024 the NBK had convened a meeting with the relevant ministries and agencies of the Kyrgyz Republic to discuss Phase II of the project for testing the prototype of the Digital Som platform in the context of state and social payments. During the meeting, the National Bank presented a draft architecture for the implementation of the “Balaga Suyunchu” (a one-time payment upon the birth of a child) project on the Digital Som platform. An agreement was reached to continue joint implementation of the project with technical specialists. [Read more at the NBK]

Crypto-assets and decentralized finance: functions and financial stability implications (BIS)

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) published a paper on the financial stability aspects of crypto-assets and decentralized finance (DeFi), including smart contracts, decentralized exchanges (DEXs), stablecoins and new forms of central bank money. The paper’s findings suggest that, while the underlying economic drivers are not different than in TradFi, DeFi poses significant challenges, including new forms of information asymmetries, market inefficiencies and the risk of cryptoization in emerging markets. It proposes tailored regulatory interventions, such as embedding rules within smart contracts and strengthening the oversight of stablecoins, to manage financial stability risks. The paper also provides a framework for prudential regulation that can mitigate risks while fostering innovation. [Read more at the BIS]

And just a reminder that I produce a monthly digest of central bank digital currency (CBDC) developments exclusively for the official sector. So (only) if you work at a central bank, ministry of finance or international financial institution (e.g., the BIS, IMF, OECD, World Bank) and 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 john@kiffmeister.com.