Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (20260416)

April 16, 2026April 16, 2026 ~ kiffmeister ~ Leave a comment

Factors that Promote Adoption and Use of a CBDC Wallet in Peru (IDEAS)

Banco Central de Reserva del Perú (BCRP) economists examined the determinants of adoption and usage of Peru’s retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot, implemented through Viettel’s BiPay digital wallet beginning in October 2024, focusing on eight regions with low financial inclusion. Based on individual-level survey data, active CBDC usage was positively associated with awareness of the BCRP’s role in the pilot, wallet satisfaction, knowledge of functionalities, and prior digital wallet use, while self-employment was negatively associated, plausibly due to the pilot’s closed-loop, non-interoperable design. Targeted advertising significantly increased merchant adoption, active user counts, and bill payment volumes, with merchant network expansion identified as a key transmission channel. The authors conclude that retail CBDC scaling requires attention to both sides of the payment market — user-facing communication and financial incentives on the demand side, merchant onboarding on the supply side — with interoperability remaining a persistent structural barrier to broader adoption. [IDEAS]

South Korean Government to Test Tokenized Deposits on Disbursements (MOEF)

South Korea’s Ministry of Economy and Finance (MOEF) will run a regulatory sandbox pilot in Sejong City to use distributed ledger technology (DLT) based tokenized bank deposits for day‑to‑day government operational spending, testing preset time, amount, and category controls on expenses to improve oversight and reduce misuse, with legal and regulatory changes and nationwide rollout targeted from Q4 2026 as part of a broader plan to digitize around a quarter of treasury disbursements by 2030, building on an earlier tokenized‑deposit subsidy pilot for EV charging infrastructure. https://cointelegraph.com/news/south-korea-pilot-tokenized-deposits-government-spending [MOEF]

Tether Launches tether.wallet Self-Custodial Digital Wallet (Tether)

Tether has launched tether.wallet, a self‑custodial digital wallet intended to extend its stablecoin‑based payment infrastructure directly to end users in over 160 countries. The product aggregates access to Tether’s digital dollars (USD₮, USA₮), gold (XAU₮), and Bitcoin across multiple networks, abstracts away gas‑token management, and enables transfers via simple human‑readable identifiers, reducing frictions that have limited previous wallet adoption. This move potentially deepens dollarization dynamics in high‑inflation and underbanked jurisdictions while bypassing bank‑intermediated channels. [Tether]

Central Banks of UAE and Philippines Agree to Link Instant Payment Systems (CBUAE)

The Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates (CBUAE) and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to support broader cooperation on financial infrastructure and payments connectivity. This includes working to integrate their instant payment platforms to enable seamless cross-border payment transactions. The MoU also provides for collaboration on central bank digital currency (CBDC) initiatives, including sharing expertise on the development of CBDC platforms for individuals and institutions. [CBUAE]

FYI I produce a monthly digest of digital fiat currency (DFC) developments exclusively for the official sector (e.g., central banks, ministries of finance and international financial institution (e.g., the BIS, IMF, OECD, World Bank)) plus academics and firms that are active in the DFC space (commercial banks, technology providers, consultants, etc.). (DFCs include central bank digital currency (CBDC), stablecoins and tokenized deposits.) It goes out via email on the first business day of every month, and if you’re interested in being on the mailing list, please email me at john@kiffmeister.com.

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (20260317)

March 17, 2026March 17, 2026 ~ kiffmeister

The Curious Case of the Stablecoin Sandwich (LinkedIn)

G+D’s Lars Hupel posted an article on LinkedIn that argues that the “stablecoin sandwich” model for cross‑border payments—converting local currency to a (mostly USD) stablecoin, sending it on‑chain, then converting back—largely replicates traditional correspondent banking rather than solving its hardest problems, because liquidity is concentrated in a few USD‑denominated stablecoins and most currencies lack deep stablecoin markets, so efficiency gains are modest and partly driven by regulatory arbitrage rather than technology; meanwhile, central banks are pursuing more promising alternatives like interlinking instant payment systems, broadening access to real-time gross settlement systems (RTGSs) to non‑banks, and building multilateral central bank digital currency (CBDC) platforms such as mBridge and Project Agorá, which more directly tackle fragmentation and access in cross‑border payments. [LinkedIn]

Stablecoins Are Coming for FX Markets (Delphi Digital)

Delphi Digital argues that dollar stablecoins are rapidly gaining share in FX, especially in long‑tail emerging market corridors where legacy correspondent banking makes cross‑border payments slow and expensive, with most costs driven by infrastructure rather than FX risk. In corridors like Argentina or Nigeria, fees and spreads are largely compensation for pre‑funded nostro/vostro accounts, delayed settlement, credit risk, and multiple intermediaries, so stablecoin rails that offer atomic, near‑instant settlement in tokenized dollars can undercut banks and keep corridors viable. The piece highlights that new infrastructures show how on‑chain FX could settle in seconds instead of days. However, it stresses that fiat on/off‑ramps remain the main bottleneck, since bank wires still run on legacy batch rails and regulatory frictions, implying that stablecoins will not displace major FX pairs soon but are already rebuilding broken payment rails in under‑served corridors. [Delphi Digital]

Upcoming Speaking Engagements:

The Crypto Assets Conference (Frankfurt, March 25) will focus on the growing importance of digital assets for capital markets and the competitiveness of the European economy. I will be speaking on the uncertain future of CBDC projects. [Register here and get 15% off the regular ticket price.]

The Digital Euro Conference 2026 (Frankfurt, March 26) will explore the future of money with a focus on CBDCs, stablecoins, and commercial bank tokens. This hybrid event offers the perfect platform to understand the future of digital money! [Register here and get 20% off the regular ticket price by using the Kiffmeister20 code!]

I produce a monthly digest of digital fiat currency (DFC) developments exclusively for the official sector (e.g., central banks, ministries of finance and international financial institution (e.g., the BIS, IMF, OECD, World Bank)) plus academics and firms that are active in the DFC space (commercial banks, technology providers, consultants, etc.). (DFCs include central bank digital currency (CBDC), stablecoins and tokenized deposits.) It goes out via email on the first business day of every month, and if you’re interested in being on the mailing list, please email me at john@kiffmeister.com.

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (20260311)

March 11, 2026March 11, 2026 ~ kiffmeister

National Bank of Kazakhstan Digital Tenge Annual Review (NBK)

The National Bank of Kazakhstan (NBK) published its annual review of the Digital Tenge project, which has shifted from research (2021) to limited production (2023) and scaled pilots in state-related payments (2025) within a broader National Digital Financial Infrastructure strategy. Programmable applications are focused on government spending, tax administration (“Digital VAT”), and targeted subsidies, rather than large-scale retail distribution. It operationalizes central bank digital currency (CBDC) as fiscal and public-finance infrastructure, tightening traceability, automating conditionality, and integrating with identification, anti-fraud, and open banking rails, rather than as a standalone payments product. The open question is how far Kazakhstan will extend CBDC use beyond state-linked flows and cross-border experiments once the 2026 roadmap and full-scale production decisions are implemented. [NBK]

Appia Roadmap for European Tokenized Finance (ECB)

The European Central Bank (ECB) published the Appia roadmap, a strategic workplan to design a tokenized wholesale financial ecosystem in Europe in which central bank money remains the settlement anchor. It will complement its Pontes distributed ledger technology (DLT) settlement solution due to launch in late 2026. Appia will, through structured engagement with market participants and public bodies, generate by 2028 a blueprint for tokenized market infrastructures, including choices between shared versus interconnected DLT networks and associated governance and standard-setting. It seeks to preserve effective monetary policy transmission, safeguard financial stability and payment system functioning, and reduce market fragmentation while enabling smart-contract based innovation in securities and payments. It also has a strategic autonomy dimension, aiming to keep euro-denominated financial market infrastructures competitive and interoperable in a tokenized world. The key open questions concern optimal network configuration, European governance arrangements and how far private infrastructures should rely on central bank money in tokenized form. [ECB]

Stablecoin Shocks (IMF)

The IMF published a paper that constructs narrative, high-frequency measures of “stablecoin shocks” based on USDT/USDC market-cap changes around stablecoin-specific news to identify their causal effects on U.S. financial markets. A 1 percent stablecoin demand shock persistently lowers short-term Treasury yields (about 1.9 bps at the 1‑month tenor), with limited effects on longer maturities. The broad dollar index modestly depreciates and crypto prices rise, with a small, economically minor increase in the S&P 500. Equity effects are heterogeneous: payment providers and crypto platforms benefiting from stablecoin infrastructure see gains, while large and community banks and major retailers show no significant response, implying markets do not yet price material disintermediation risk. Results are robust across identification strategies, event definitions, and econometric specifications. [IMF]

Tokenomics and Blockchain Fragmentation (BIS)

The BIS published a Hyun Song Shin paper that develops a global-games model of distributed technology technology (DLT) network validator coordination to show that higher decentralization requires disproportionately higher validator rents funded by user fees. This implies that capacity must be endogenously constrained and congestion is structurally necessary rather than incidental. This tokenomic structure induces entry of lower-security, lower-fee chains that attract users priced out of incumbent ledgers, generating persistent fragmentation across base layers and layer‑2s and eroding the network effects that normally drive convergence on a single medium of exchange. As a result, for example, nominally identical stablecoins on different chains are non‑fungible, bridged rather than natively interoperable, so liquidity and acceptance remain chain‑specific despite common issuers and regulatory regimes. The paper argues that a central‑bank‑anchored trust and settlement layer is required to deliver monetary integration, rather than relying on fully decentralized consensus. [BIS]

Stablecoins and the Missing Infrastructure Layer (LinkedIn)

Tord Coucheron posted a paper that argues that stablecoin growth reflects a structural response to cross‑border payment frictions in correspondent banking, not a fundamental demand for new private money. It shows that liquidity fragmentation, prefunding costs, and opaque, sequential settlement make traditional cross‑border transfers slow and capital‑intensive, making privately issued tokenized settlement claims economically attractive despite reserve and governance risks. It then introduces a real‑time multi‑currency financial market infrastructure (FMI) in central bank money, where banks hold multiple currencies and settle via payment‑versus‑payment (PvP), driving settlement costs toward zero and preserving the deposit‑funded banking model, monetary policy transmission, and monetary sovereignty. [LinkedIn]

Upcoming Speaking Engagements:

The Crypto Assets Conference (Frankfurt, March 25) I will be speaking on the uncertain future of CBDC projects. [Register here and get 15% off the regular ticket price.]

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (20260209)

February 9, 2026February 9, 2026 ~ kiffmeister

I’m continuing my backfilling, this time catching up to some papers that were published in January that I put on the back burner because January was one of *those* months:

The Hidden Plumbing of Stablecoins: Financial and Technological Risks in the GENIUS Act Era (MIT DCI)

The MIT Digital Currency Initiative (DCI) published a paper evaluates the financial, technological, and regulatory risks facing U.S. dollar stablecoins under the 2025 GENIUS Act. The authors argue that while the Act strengthens reserve asset quality and transparency, it treats stablecoin stability primarily as a balance-sheet problem, leaving critical vulnerabilities unaddressed. Maintaining par-value redemption depends not only on high-quality backing assets but also on the functioning of Treasury and repo markets, broker-dealer balance-sheet capacity, and blockchain operational reliability. The paper identifies three interconnected risk layers: financial risks (including Treasury market fragility and dealer intermediation bottlenecks), technological risks (smart contract bugs, consensus attacks, bridge failures), and regulatory gaps (undefined redemption mechanics, lack of capital requirements, no access to Federal Reserve liquidity facilities). The analysis reveals that even conservatively backed stablecoins could face stress from redemption surges or market disruptions, and that stablecoin issuers have significantly lower capital buffers than commercial banks. The authors conclude that durable stability requires an integrated approach spanning financial-market infrastructure, prudential regulation, and software governance, while highlighting a key policy dilemma: granting stablecoin issuers Fed access could reduce liquidity risk but might disintermediate banks and affect monetary policy transmission. [Source: MIT DCI]

Stablecoins in Retail Payments (ArXiv)

ArXiv published a paper that systematically compares stablecoin-based payments with traditional card networks as retail payment systems. The authors introduce the CLEAR framework (Cost, Legality, Experience, Architecture, and Reach) to evaluate both systems across five dimensions. Their analysis reveals that while stablecoins offer advantages like continuous settlement, lower rail-level fees, and programmability, they suffer from significant drawbacks including weaker consumer protection (no native chargebacks), higher user-facing complexity (gas fees, wallet management), fragmented interoperability across blockchains, and limited merchant acceptance. Card networks, by contrast, subsidize consumers through interchange fees, provide strong legal recourse mechanisms, and benefit from standardized global infrastructure and network effects. The paper concludes that stablecoins demonstrate conditional advantages in closed-loop environments, cross-border corridors, and high-friction payment contexts (particularly in high-inflation economies), but remain structurally disadvantaged as general-purpose retail payment instruments compared to card networks due to their institutional incompleteness and lack of coordinated governance frameworks. [Source: ArXiv]

Central Bank Digital Currency and Monetary Sovereignty (CEPR)

The Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) published an article that argues that a central bank digital currency (CBDC) is not essential for maintaining monetary sovereignty, contrary to popular claims. The author contends that throughout history, monetary stability has relied on a hybrid system of publicly defined units of account backed by private money (like bank deposits), rather than universal access to public currency. True monetary sovereignty depends on the central bank’s legal authority and its capacity to absorb risk through balance-sheet operations during crises, not on issuing retail digital currency. The article further distinguishes between money (the settlement asset) and payments (the transaction mechanism), arguing that concerns about foreign payment providers are payment system issues requiring regulatory solutions, not CBDC. [Source: CEPR]

Central Bank Digital Currency and Gresham’s Law: An Experimental Analysis (SNB)

The Swiss National Bank (SNB) published a paper that examines how people use central bank digital currency (CBDC) versus risky bank deposits through a laboratory experiment. The researchers tested Gresham’s law—the principle that “bad money drives out good”—by having participants allocate funds between a risk-free account (like CBDC) and a risky account (like bank deposits) that could lose 50% with 10% probability. Key findings show that when the risk-free account is unrestricted, people extensively hold and pay with it. However, when limited by a ceiling or negative interest rate, people tend to hoard the risk-free money as a store of value while using risky money for payments—confirming Gresham’s law. The study concludes that mechanisms designed to limit CBDC holdings (necessary to protect the banking system) may undermine its effectiveness as a payment method, suggesting it may be better to build payment systems on existing bank deposits rather than CBDC. [Source: SNB]

Upcoming Speaking Engagements:

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (20260207)

February 7, 2026February 7, 2026 ~ kiffmeister

Universal Launches UAE’s First Central Bank-Registered USD Stablecoin (Universal Digital)

[January 29, 2026] Universal Digital Intl Limited become the first Foreign Payment Token Issuer registered by the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), alongside the launch of USDU, the first USD-backed stablecoin to be registered as a Foreign Payment Token under the UAE’s Payment Token Services Regulation. This makes USDU the only compliant USD settlement option for digital assets in the UAE market. The stablecoin is backed 1:1 by reserves held in safeguarded accounts at Emirates NBD and Mashreq, with Mbank providing corporate banking support, and features monthly independent attestation by a global accounting firm. Universal, regulated by Abu Dhabi Global Market’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority, is partnering with AECoin, the first licensed UAE Dirham (AED) stablecoin in the UAE, for future AED conversions and with Aquanow for broader institutional distribution, positioning USDU as a bridge between traditional financial systems and the emerging digital asset economy both domestically and internationally. [Source: Universal Digital]

Some more backfilling:

Potential Implementation of Timor-Leste eCentavos (BCTL)

[September 6, 2024] Banco Central de Timor-Leste (BCTL) published its 2025-2035 Strategic Plan for Financial Sector Development in which it discussed its plans to possibly issue eCentavos central bank digital currency (CBDC), as part of its strategy to modernize the financial system, enhance payment efficiency, and promote financial inclusion. The project will follow a phased approach starting with a comprehensive feasibility study in 2025 that examines potential benefits, challenges, and lessons from other central banks’ CBDC experiences. This may be followed by pilot testing in at least five municipalities in 2026, and full-scale implementation in 2028. The plan emphasizes the importance of assessing technological resilience, privacy and security concerns, user adoption, and interoperability with existing financial systems during the gradual rollout. [Source: BCTL]

Upcoming Speaking Engagements:

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (20260203)

February 3, 2026February 3, 2026 ~ kiffmeister

BSP Eyes CBDC for Settling Tokenized Government Bonds (GMA News)

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is reportedly developing a second proof of concept for its wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) to settle tokenized government bonds, following the completion of Project Agila testing in 2024. According to BSP deputy governor Mamerto Tangonan, this initiative will provide a settlement instrument for the Bureau of the Treasury’s tokenized treasury bonds (TTBs), which raised ₱10 billion from the domestic bond market using distributed ledger technology. The wholesale CBDC is intended for use by commercial banks and financial institutions for interbank payments, securities transactions, and cross-border payments, with the BSP planning to expand participation beyond the initial six banks in the next testing phase, though no specific timeline has been announced. [Source: GMA News]

Understanding Disputes Over Digitalization: CBDC Cross-Border Perspectives (Emory Law)

The Emory International Law Review published a paper by Heng Wang that examines the complexity of disputes arising from digitalization through the lens of cross-border central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). The paper analyzes CBDC-related disputes using a three-dimensional framework: the social dimension (divergent state interests, approaches, and levels of commonality among jurisdictions); the material dimension (subject matter complexities involving data, technology, and parties’ perceptions regarding dispute classification, risk tolerance, and market attitudes); and the temporal dimension (how technology and rule development evolve over time, creating legal vacuums and new challenges). The paper finds that dispute complexity stems from factors including regulatory inconsistencies across jurisdictions, technological uncertainties, varying privacy standards, interoperability challenges, and geoeconomic considerations. It argues that understanding these multifaceted dimensions is essential for developing effective dispute settlement mechanisms and governance frameworks as digitalization accelerates, particularly as CBDC networks expand and interconnect globally. [Source: Emory Law]

I’m also continuing my efforts to update my CBDC and CBDCTracker.org databases, so here’s some more backfilling:

Digital Turkish Lira Second Phase Progress Report (CBRT)

[November 24, 2025] The Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye (CBRT) published a progress report on the 2nd phase of its Digital Turkish Lira project, which will focus on developing programmable payments and offline payment capabilities while maintaining core principles of privacy, interoperability, and financial inclusion. The digital lira will operate through a two-tier system where the central bank issues the currency and financial intermediaries provide user access without the central bank storing user identity data. Key developments include payment templates and packages that enable automated, condition-based transactions integrated with digital identity verification, and offline payment functionality using smart cards and NFC technology to work without internet connectivity. The system is being designed for interoperability with digital assets, cross-border payment platforms, and existing financial infrastructure, with the goal of reaching a minimum viable product stage by the end of this phase before any potential circulation decision in a third phase. Similar to the first phase, pilot tests will also be conducted in the second phase. [Source: CBRT]

Central Bank of Iraq on Banking reform, Digital Dinar, Dollar Transactions… (Iraq Business News)

[December 2, 2025] The Central Bank of Iraq (CBI) is reportedly developing a digital dinar project, although according to Governor Ali Mohsen Al-Alaqit, it requires significant time and infrastructure before launch. [Source: Iraq Business News]

Upcoming Speaking Engagements:

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (20260126)

January 26, 2026January 26, 2026 ~ kiffmeister

Stablecoins in Payments: What the Raw Transaction Numbers Miss (LinkedIn)

McKinsey Financial Services published analysis reveals that while stablecoins show headline transaction volumes of up to $35 trillion annually, the actual payment activity is only about $390 billion—representing roughly 0.02% of global payments. Most reported stablecoin transactions consist of trading, internal fund shuffling, and automated blockchain activity rather than real-world payments like supplier payments or remittances. The research, conducted with Artemis Analytics, found that B2B payments dominate actual stablecoin usage at $226 billion (60% of total), with Asia-originated activity leading at $245 billion. While stablecoin supply has grown from under $30 billion in 2020 to over $300 billion today, with projections reaching $2-4 trillion by 2030, the analysis emphasizes that financial institutions need to critically evaluate raw blockchain data and invest strategically in proven use cases rather than relying on inflated volume figures to assess stablecoins’ current market position and potential. [Source: McKinsey]

When Monetary Innovation Makes Money Obsolete (OMFIF)

The Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) published an article by Ousmène Mandeng that argues that tokenization and instant financial transactions could make traditional money holdings obsolete. The author explains that money’s value stems from transaction frictions—the delays and costs of converting assets into purchasing power. As tokenization enables near-instantaneous, frictionless conversion between interest-bearing securities and money, people would no longer need to hold money balances in advance of payments. Instead, they would convert assets to money just-in-time for transactions and immediately back again, causing money holdings to shrink toward zero while money velocity becomes unbounded. This would fundamentally reshape banking, blurring the lines between banks and investment funds, as money transitions from being a store of value to merely a transient settlement instrument within transaction flows. [Source: OMFIF]

Stablecoins Are the Future But Banks Will Survive (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg published an article that argues that stablecoins pose minimal threat to traditional banking. While banks worry that interest-bearing stablecoins will drain deposits and increase their funding costs, the article contends that historical evidence suggests stablecoins and bank deposits serve complementary rather than competing functions—similar to how bank notes and deposits coexisted during the National Banking Era. The authors note that 70-80% of bank deposits are insensitive to interest rates, with customers valuing bundled services like physical branches over higher yields, making mass migration to stablecoins unlikely. They conclude that stablecoins, backed strictly by cash and short-term Treasuries under the GENIUS Act, enhance financial stability rather than threaten it, while providing additional demand for government debt. [Source: Bloomberg]

Stablecoins as Eurodollars 2.0 – Toward a Shadow Dollar Standard (SSRN)

A paper posted on SSRN co-authored by the University of Toronto’s Redouane Elkamhi argues that fiat-backed stablecoins function as “Eurodollars 2.0″—a new generation of offshore dollar liabilities that operate outside traditional banking regulation but remain economically linked to U.S. financial markets through reserve holdings and redemption mechanisms. Like the historical eurodollar system, stablecoins expand dollar liquidity creation and circulation beyond domestic borders, potentially strengthening dollar dominance by embedding the dollar as the default settlement asset in tokenized finance and accelerating digital dollarization in economies with weak currencies. However, this creates similar fragilities: stablecoins can experience rapid redemption runs that force reserve liquidations and transmit stress to money markets, while their global accessibility may erode monetary sovereignty in other jurisdictions. The authors propose the “Stablecoin Eurodollar System” framework to analyze how stress propagates through on-chain payment layers, off-chain reserve portfolios, and wholesale funding markets, emphasizing that the key policy challenge is not whether stablecoins exist but how convertibility into state money is governed when usage becomes systemic—particularly regarding reserve requirements, transparency standards, and whether public sector liquidity backstops should be extended to this new class of dollar instruments. [https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=6061095]

Upcoming Speaking Engagements:

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (20260120)

January 20, 2026January 20, 2026 ~ kiffmeister

India’s Central Bank Proposes Linking BRICS’ Digital Currencies (Reuters)

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has reportedly recommended that the Indian government place a proposal to interconnect BRICS central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) on the agenda for the 2026 BRICS summit, which India will host. The proposal aims to facilitate cross-border payments for trade and tourism among BRICS members, potentially reducing reliance on dollar-based settlement systems, though the RBI maintains its efforts are not directed toward de-dollarization. Implementation would require resolution of several technical and political challenges: none of the BRICS states has fully deployed a retail CBDC beyond pilot programs, and any operational framework would necessitate consensus on interoperable technology standards, governance structures, and mechanisms to manage trade imbalances—a problem illustrated by earlier Russia-India local-currency trade arrangements where Russia accumulated large rupee balances with limited deployment options. The sources indicated that bilateral foreign exchange swap arrangements between central banks, with weekly or monthly settlements, are under consideration as one potential solution, though they cautioned that member states’ reluctance to adopt technology platforms developed by other countries could impede progress. The initiative builds on the 2025 Rio declaration calling for payment system interoperability among BRICS members and would mark the first formal presentation of a CBDC linkage proposal at a BRICS leaders’ meeting, though previous ambitious BRICS initiatives, including proposals for a common BRICS currency, have failed to materialize. [Source: Reuters]

Upcoming Speaking Engagements:

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (20251210)

December 10, 2025December 10, 2025 ~ kiffmeister

Norges Bank does not Recommend CBDC Introduction (Norges Bank)

Norges Bank has decided not to recommend introducing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) at this time, as Norway’s current payment system is already efficient, secure, and stable. The bank examined both retail and wholesale CBDC, but found no immediate need for either variant. However, Norges Bank acknowledges that circumstances may change due to rapid technological advances, tokenization trends, and the potential introduction of a digital euro by the Eurosystem. The bank will continue researching CBDCs and tokenization through experimental testing and international collaboration to ensure it can implement a CBDC if necessary in the future, with a detailed report planned for Q1 2026. [Source: Norges Bank]

Project Rialto: Improving Instant Cross-Border Payments using Central Bank Money Settlement (BIS)

The BIS Innovation Hub wrapped up Project Rialto, a collaboration with central banks from France, Italy, Malaysia, and Singapore to improve instant cross-border payments. The project successfully demonstrated the technical feasibility of connecting traditional instant payment systems with an automated foreign exchange (FX) market using tokenized central bank money (CeBM) as a settlement asset. The architecture combined two functional blocks: domestic instant payment systems linked through a hub mechanism, and a cross-border distributed ledger network (XDN) for automated FX conversion via automated market makers (AMMs). The proof of concept tested both direct currency transactions and those requiring a vehicle currency for low-liquidity corridors, achieving payment-versus-payment settlement with minimal changes to existing systems. While technically successful, the report identifies key economic considerations for operational viability, including fee structures, performance under different market conditions, transparency impacts, and liquidity requirements, noting that AMMs require pre-funding which introduces costs and that further research is needed on the interaction between traditional intermediaries and decentralized exchanges in currency markets. [Source: BIS]

The Future of the Federal Reserve Banks’ Check Services (FRB)

The Federal Reserve Board (FRB) is seeking public comment on the future of its check processing services as check usage has declined dramatically, while its aging infrastructure requires substantial investment to maintain current operations. The FRB is considering four potential strategies: continuing without investment (leading to service degradation over time), significantly simplifying services, substantially winding down operations, or upgrading infrastructure with major costs that would need to be recovered through higher fees. The FRB, which currently processes nearly half of the nation’s check volume, must balance the declining demand against legal requirements to recover all operating costs through service fees, while considering the broader impacts on the payments system and communities that still depend on checks. [Source: FRB]

Upcoming Speaking Engagements:

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (20251121)

November 21, 2025 ~ kiffmeister

First UAE-China Direct Cross-Border CBDC Payment Made (CBUAE)

The Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates (CBUAE) executed the first direct payment to China using a central bank digital currency (CBDC) via the Jisr platform, established with the participation of a group of Emirati and Chinese banks. In parallel, the instant payment systems of the UAE and China were interconnected, allowing students, residents and firms in both countries to transfer funds securely and instantly across borders, aiming to reduce costs, enhance transaction reliability, and strengthen commercial ties. Also, the two countries’ central banks signed a memorandum of understanding to deepen cooperation in cross-border payments and financial infrastructure development. [Source: CBUAE]

ECB Advances Integration of TIPS with UPI and Nexus (ECB)

The European Central Bank (ECB) will advance the integration of the Eurosystem’s instant-payments platform (TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS)) with the Indian Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and the Nexus Global Payments scheme. India’s UPI is an instant payments system developed by the National Payments Corporation of India. Nexus is a multilateral payments scheme that will initially connect the fast payment systems of Bank Negara Malaysia, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the Bank of Thailand and the Reserve Bank of India. The original concept was developed by the Bank for International Settlements. The decision is part of the Eurosystem’s overall efforts to make it easier for businesses and consumers in Europe to send and receive payments to and from other countries, including remittances. [Source: ECB]

Upcoming Speaking Engagements: