Tag: Payments

Kiffmeister’s #Fintech Daily Digest (20260612)

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Zelle Heads to India, Unveils ZelleUSDSM Stablecoin For Other Markets (Zelle)

Early Warning, the operator of U.S. fast payment system (FPS) Zelle, will launch Zelle in India first for U.S. consumers sending money to family and friends abroad, with initial availability expected before year-end, and it also introduced ZelleUSD (ZLUSD), a U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin intended to support future international payments in other markets. The company framed the move as an expansion of its domestic payments network into cross-border remittances, saying financial institutions could offer near-instant transfers through existing banks and credit unions. [Zelle]

The Anatomy of Stablecoin Transactions (BIS)

The BIS published a paper by Schär, Kosse, Rice, Shirakami, and Siridhasanakul that analyze 593 million Ethereum event logs across 141 million transactions to argue that stablecoin transfers are routinely embedded within atomically executed bundles combining trading, lending, and settlement, distorting standard interpretations of stablecoin activity. While 31.6% of transactions involve such complexity, these generate nearly 60% of all transfer events, meaning transfer-level data misclassifies most observations as standalone payments. USDT, USDC, and PYUSD differ systematically in co-usage, computational burden, urgency, and business-hour alignment, reflecting distinct institutional designs rather than interchangeability. The action-set classification offers supervisors a basis for activity-based oversight, while divergent jurisdictional timing patterns underscore the need for cross-border data-sharing among regulators. [BIS]

Stakeholder Engagement and Roadmap for Philippines Wholesale CBDC (IMF)

The IMF published a technical assistance report on stakeholder engagement and roadmap development for Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’s (BSP’s) Project Agila wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC) project. As part of this work, tokenized government bond settlement and cross-border payments were identified as priority wCBDC use cases. Workshops with financial institutions, the Bureau of the Treasury, and market infrastructure providers highlighted real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system settlement-window limitations, capital market shallowness, and correspondent-banking-dependent cross-border payment inefficiencies. The roadmap calls for cost-benefit analysis of wCBDC against alternatives including trigger solutions and omnibus accounts, although the Securities Clearing Corporation (SCCP) prefers its existing fee-free settlement-bank arrangements, which also provide netting and liquidity-saving features not easily replicated on RTGS, over direct settlement access. Legal framework gaps and financial integrity regulation compliance remain key open issues. [IMF]

BTW if you want to see a complete database of my DFC-related posts going back years, including many that didn’t make the Daily Digest cut, click here.

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 (20260602)

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MoneyGram Launches MGUSD Stablecoin (MoneyGram)

MoneyGram announced the launch of its MGUSD U.S. dollar stablecoin to underpin its global remittance and payments network. MGUSD is framed as an infrastructure layer integrated into a self-custodial wallet in the MoneyGram app, initially in the United States, using Bridge as regulated issuer, M0 smart contracts and Stellar for settlement, with Fireblocks providing custody. Unresolved are regulatory treatment across markets, interoperability with other stablecoins and systems, and how issuance and reserves will be supervised at scale. [MoneyGram]

Advancing Digital Payments in Bhutan (ADB)

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) published an assessment of Bhutan’s digital payment infrastructure that included an update on Bhutan’s Royal Monetary Authority (RMA) central bank digital currency (CBDC) projects, both retail and wholesale. The aim is to provide more accessible and secure financial services to a broader population, including underserved communities, and streamline cross‑border transactions, including by reducing the need for correspondent banking relationships and simplifying currency conversion processes in international trade. However, the ADB found that there are gaps in existing financial services regulations and payment systems rules will need to be addressed first. [ADB]

Call for Expressions of Interest to Participate in the Appia Contact Group (ECB)

The European Central Bank (ECB) is inviting financial market stakeholders and public sector bodies to express their interest in participating in the Appia Contact Group Appia CG). The Appia project is aimed at enabling the settlement of distributed ledger technology (DLT) transactions using tokenized central bank money (CeBM) via a unified settlement ecosystem. It runs alongside the Pontes project, aimed at settling DLT transactions using API-based trigger and hash-link mechanisms and dedicated DLT cash wallets funded from TARGET accounts, which has its own contact group. The Appia CG will contribute to the Appia roadmap and advise on the operation and evolution of the Pontes pilot. Membership targets future users, contributors to Appia, relevant value‑chain actors, and industry associations. National central banks and selected European authorities participate as observers; the group is chaired and serviced by the European Central Bank and meets quarterly, with work outputs generally published. [ECB]

The ECB Publishes List of Digital Euro Steering Committee Members (ECB)

The European Central Bank (ECB) published the members of the Eurosystem’s High-Level Task Force on Digital Euro, which steers the digital euro project and reports to the ECB’s Governing Council. It is made up of members from national central banks of the Eurosystem. [ECB]

BTW if you want to see a complete database of my DFC-related posts going back years, including many that didn’t make the Daily Digest cut, click here.

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 (20260527)

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Project Agorá: A Shared Programmable Platform for Wholesale Cross-Border Payments (BIS)

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) published an update on Project Agorá, a public-private collaboration convened by the and the Institute of International Finance (IIF). It proposes a two-layer distributed ledger platform for wholesale cross-border payments, combining tokenized central bank reserves with tokenized commercial bank deposits linked via smart contracts. The architecture explicitly preserves correspondent banking and the two-tier monetary system — a design choice that limits ambition considerably, since the structural inefficiencies of correspondent chains (nostro prefunding costs, corridor de-risking, access inequality) remain largely intact. The principal claimed advantages — atomic settlement eliminating credit risk, and parallel rather than sequential compliance processing — are real but narrow, and address wholesale volumes where settlement failures are costly rather than the access and cost problems motivating the G20 reform agenda. FX settlement and liquidity-saving mechanisms are out of scope. Governance arrangements, settlement finality across jurisdictions, cybersecurity at production scale, and coordinated financial crime information-sharing are all unresolved, leaving the prototype considerably further from deployment than the report’s tone suggests. [BIS]

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 (20260502)

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BOE Considers Keeping Digital Pound On Ice as Rivals Race Ahead (Bloomberg)

The Bank of England (BOE) and HM Treasury (HMT) are reportedly considering slowing down the digital pound project to defer making an immediate firm decision to approve or scrap it. Officials have been encouraged by private-sector innovation—especially tokenized deposits—that could deliver many CBDC benefits (faster, cheaper payments) within the existing regulated banking system, reducing the urgency to build a central-bank solution. The project has faced skepticism from the public, Parliament, and even BOE Governor Andrew Bailey, who remains unconvinced of the need for a retail CBDC. A decision to build would entail upfront costs in the hundreds of millions of pounds (albeit later offset by CBDC income), voluntary participation by banks, and risk of political backlash over privacy concerns. [Bloomberg]

Meta Rolls Out Stablecoin Payments (Coindesk)

Meta rolled out digital currency payouts for select creators in Colombia and the Philippines. The payouts use the USDC stablecoin on either the Solana or Polygon blockchain networks, processed via Stripe’s Link wallet and accompanied by tax reporting from both Meta and Stripe. The initiative marks Meta’s return to stablecoins after it attempted to introduce the Libra token, later renamed Diem, only to shut down the project amid regulatory scrutiny in 2022. [Meta]

Central Bank Digital Currency and Monetary Architecture (Dirk Niepelt)

In a literature review that has been accepted for publication by the Journal of Economic Literature, Dirk Niepelt argues that the macroeconomic consequences of retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) depend primarily on the policy choices accompanying its introduction. Organizing the survey around a neutrality result, the paper demonstrates that bank disintermediation does not independently constitute a source of non-neutrality, provided the central bank recycles CBDC proceeds to banks on deposit-equivalent terms. Most existing research conflates policy-contingent with fundamental sources of non-neutrality, obscuring the extent of policymaker control. Because CBDC represents a structural shift in monetary architecture rather than a technical payment upgrade, it raises political economy questions that exceed the conventional mandate of central banks. [Niepelt.ch]

On the Resilience of Payment Methods (NBER)

The U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) published a paper that argues, using multi-source U.S. and cross-country evidence, that cash functions as critical fallback liquidity when electricity outages disable digital payment infrastructure during natural disasters. Event studies across store-level transaction data, card aggregates, and household scanner records show that hurricanes generate persistent outages, shifting spending composition sharply toward cash, while pre-disaster expenditure spikes are credit-financed stockpiling. The finding that payment-system fragility is a first-order attribute of any instrument has direct implications for regulators overseeing cashless transitions, mandatory acceptance rules, and the design of offline-capable central bank digital currencies. [NBER]

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 (20260428)

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ECB Signs Agreements with European Standard Setters to Facilitate Digital Euro Payments (ECB)

The European Central Bank (ECB) announced agreements with three European payment standard‑setting bodies to reuse existing open standards for processing online digital euro payments. The standards include European Card Payment Cooperation (ECPC) CPACE (to support contactless “tap‑to‑pay” payments using near‑field communication between a payment device and a payment terminal); nexo (specifications to connect merchants’ systems with the back-end systems of payment service providers and acquirers; and Berlin Group (to allow payments to be made using an alias (such as a mobile phone number) and support balance checks and reconciliation across mobile devices and payment acceptance in areas like digital euro transactions initiated in merchant apps on smartphones). The deal aims to reduce integration costs, support cross‑border scaling of European schemes, and lessen dependence on proprietary card and wallet standards owned by global firms. This move embeds the project in existing retail payment infrastructure, but leaves open how additional standards and governance will evolve over time. [ECB]

Western Union to Launch Stablecoin Next Month (The Block)

Western Union will launch a Solana-based, U.S. dollar–backed stablecoin called USDPT next month, initially using it as an internal settlement rail with key agents in select countries as an alternative to SWIFT, enabling on-chain cross-border settlement even during traditional banking holidays. The firm is also rolling out a Digital Asset Network (DAN) that connects consumer crypto wallets to Western Union’s retail and agent network so users can cash out digital assets into local currency through familiar outlets, with the first partner going live this week. Later this year, Western Union plans a USD “Stable Card” in dozens of markets, allowing consumers—especially in inflation-prone countries—to hold dollar-denominated value in stablecoins and spend globally. [The Block]

FIDO Alliance to Develop Standards for Trusted AI Agent Interactions (FIDO)

The FIDO Alliance announced a new Agentic Authentication Technical Working Group and payments workstream to standardize how AI agents authenticate, delegate, and execute commerce on users’ behalf. The initiative, building on contributions like Google’s Agent Payments Protocol and Mastercard’s Verifiable Intent, aims to create phishing‑resistant mechanisms for verifiable user instructions, agent authentication, and bounded, user‑controlled delegation for transactions. This matters for policy and market structure because it could harden agentic commerce against fraud, reduce reliance on proprietary stacks, and provide interoperable guardrails around intent, authorization, and liability allocation, while leaving governance and enforcement models still under‑specified. [FIDO]

Reforming MiCA for Euro Stablecoins (Blockchain for Europe)

Blockchain for Europe published a report in which Ulrich Bindseil and Erwin Voloder propose reforms to the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAR) to bolster euro-denominated electronic money tokens (EMTs). Core recommendations include permitting remuneration limited to reserve income pass-through, eliminating the 30-60% minimum bank deposit requirement to enable diversified high-quality liquid assets (HQLA) akin to liquidity coverage ratio standards, enhancing proportionate reserve transparency via standardized reporting, mandating stress testing and concentration limits, granting calibrated central bank deposit access for safeguarding, and clarifying cross-border multi-issuance frameworks. These adjustments aim to mitigate MiCAR’s regulatory overreach—placing Europe on the downward-sloping Laffer curve for stablecoin competitiveness—while preserving prudential safeguards, reducing bank interdependencies, and elevating the euro’s global on-chain role amid U.S. dollar dominance. [Blockchain for Europe]

A Tale of Transactions: An Analysis of Retail Payments in the Euro Area (JPSS)

The Journal of Payments Strategy & Systems (JPSS) published an article in which Diederik Bruggink uses euro area retail payment data to inform debate on potential holding limits for a digital euro. Drawing on the European Central Bank’s Study on the Payment Attitudes of Consumers in the Euro Area 2024 and ECB statistical data, he derives average transaction values and cash holdings by country, and analyzes card and e‑money transactions by instrument and merchant category. The paper shows cash still anchors small-value payments and backup liquidity, debit cards dominate everyday non‑cash transactions with falling average ticket sizes, and e‑money is highly concentrated in a few markets. This matters because realistic digital euro limits must reflect actual transaction sizes, cross‑country heterogeneity, and the contingency role of cash, or risk distorting payment choice, inclusion, and bank funding. Open questions include how to integrate instant payments and how behavioral substitution will evolve once a digital euro exists. [JPSS]

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 (20260425)

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How Agentic AI Will Reshape Payments (IMF)

An IMF paper by Sonja Davidovic and Hervé Tourpe argues that agentic artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to fundamentally alter payment system architecture by shifting transaction initiation from human instructions to machine decisions. The note applies a three-layer framework of intent, authorization, and settlement to identify where agentic AI can add efficiency while preserving control and transaction finality. The paper finds that the core tension between AI’s probabilistic decision-making and the deterministic requirements of payment infrastructure raises unresolved questions about authorization integrity, compliance traceability, and systemic risk concentration. Governance and institutional design — rather than technology alone — are identified as the primary determinants of whether outcomes are stabilizing or destabilizing. The principal open question is how existing legal and regulatory frameworks, which presuppose human-initiated transactions, can be adapted to assign accountability when autonomous agents are the transacting parties. [IMF]

I think that this paper is significant because it is the first one of its kind, focusing outwardly to risks posed by wide-scale agentic AI usage, that I’ve come across, from an official institution. However, there are a few that come close, albeit not from official institutions:

AI Agents in Action: Foundations for Evaluation and Governance (WEF)

In November 2025 the World Economic Forum (WEF), set out a framework for deploying large language model-based AI agents in organizations, emphasizing structured evaluation and progressive governance. The paper argues that agent architectures now combine application, orchestration and reasoning layers, connected via interoperability protocols that enable powerful multi-agent workflows but expand the cyber attack surface. It proposes classifying agents by function, role, predictability, autonomy, authority and operational context to link technical design choices to risk assessment and safeguards, supporting proportionate controls and clearer allocation of responsibility between providers and adopters. [WEF]

Model AI Governance Framework for Agentic AI (IMDA)

Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) published a model governance framework for agentic AI that prescribes how organizations should bound risks, assign accountability, and embed controls across the lifecycle of autonomous language‑model‑based agents. It defines agents as multi‑step planners with tools, memory, and protocols, emphasizes risk from real‑world action, sensitive data access, and complex multi‑agent dynamics, and analyzes new system‑level failure modes. The framework then articulates four pillars—upfront risk/use‑case assessment, human accountability and oversight, lifecycle technical and security controls, and end‑user responsibility through transparency and training—as a reference architecture for enterprise deployment and prospective regulation. It positions these as adaptable building blocks rather than fixed rules, and flags open questions around agent identity, dynamic authorization, evaluation methods, and cross‑border accountability, inviting feedback and case studies to refine future iterations. [IMDA]

Systemic Risks Associated with Agentic AI (ACM)

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) published a policy brief arguing that current European Union (EU) AI Act provisions only partially address systemic risks from highly autonomous agentic AI systems. It describes agents capable of self-directed, tool-using operation and multi-agent coordination, stressing risks of loss of human control, opacity, economic disruption, and malicious uses in cyberattacks, disinformation, and market manipulation. The brief proposes shifting from static, product-focused rules to dynamic governance with lifecycle monitoring, multi-agent testing, strengthened cybersecurity, and potential new categories for macroeconomic and systemic risks. It highlights unresolved questions on alignment oversight, liability allocation, and integrating fiscal, competition, and labor policy with AI regulation. [ACM]

Granted, the BIS has published a paper on a very specific payments-focused agentic AI use case, I’m looking for papers that focus on policy issues around agentic AI governance and risk mitigation.

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 (20260416)

~ kiffmeister

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 (20260405)

~ kiffmeister

Is Nigeria’s eNaira Dead? (Cryptonews)

[October 22, 2025] Nigeria’s eNaira has effectively slipped into a quiet death, with official channels and infrastructure fading away even as authorities stop short of formally killing the project. The mobile apps have disappeared from major app stores, the USSD access channel no longer works, leaving users locked out or unable to complete basic actions. And the eNaira’s official website returns a “404 Web Site not found” message and the official social media presence has been silent since 2023. [Cryptonews]

Question to readers: Should the eNaira be classified as “canceled” in the CBDCTracker.org database? The story above is old, but everything it says is now current.

Innovations and the Layering of Money and Payments (SAFE)

In a Sustainable Architecture for Finance in Europe (SAFE) working paper, Ulrich Bindseil argues that technological innovation is reshaping but not abolishing the hierarchical “layering” of money and payment ledgers, with central bank money remaining the ultimate anchor. He develops a typology of ledger layers and balance‑sheet structures, then applies it to central bank digital currency (CBDC), instant payment systems, public blockchains, tokenized multi‑asset platforms, expanded non‑bank access to central bank accounts, and stablecoins, finding that most proposals reorganize tiers rather than create a genuinely flat architecture. This matters because optimal layering balances efficiency, risk allocation, and governance: central banks should preserve singleness of money via a senior public ledger while selectively widening access and modernizing regulation to manage new operational and financial risks. The key unresolved question is how far to extend base‑layer access and programmability without undermining the advantages of a two‑tier banking system or overburdening central banks’ risk‑management role. [SAFE vis SSRN]

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 (20260404)

~ kiffmeister

Worldpay 2026 Global Payments Report (Worldpay)

Worldpay published the 2026 edition of its Global Payments Report in which it argues that global consumer payments are rapidly shifting toward digital wallets and app‑based rails, with cards adapting and crypto evolving rather than disrupting. The report documents rising wallet dominance in e‑commerce and at point of sale, regional variation in account‑to‑account systems, and the continued but declining direct share of cards as usage migrates into wallets. These developments sharpen questions about governance of national fast‑payment infrastructures, merchant routing and fee regulation, cross‑border interoperability, and the competitive position of bank‑issued cards versus platform wallets and “superapps.” They also highlight how buy-now-pay-later and card‑backed installments blur prudential and consumer‑protection boundaries, and how stablecoin‑based payment rails may need bespoke oversight alongside traditional systems. [Worldpay]

An Efficient Frontier Analysis of Stablecoin Reserve Management (VISA)

VISA published an article in which Ezechiel Copic uses an efficient frontier framework to show how new U.S. and EU stablecoin rules compress reserve returns and reorient issuer economics toward liquidity and resilience. The article models pre‑regulation reserve strategies using Tether’s historical mix to illustrate a wide opportunity set, then re‑estimates frontiers under the U.S. GENIUS Act and the EU’s Markets in Crypto‑Assets Regulation. Under GENIUS, a narrow set of high‑quality liquid assets leaves only a thin band of feasible risk‑return combinations, making reserve management resemble liquidity engineering rather than portfolio optimization. Under MiCA, lower euro‑area rates and binding bank‑deposit floors further depress and compress the frontier, especially for “significant” issuers. The analysis implies competition will shift from balance‑sheet yield to technology, distribution, and compliance, while leaving open how far reduced issuer economics may constrain market entry and long‑run innovation. [VISA]

Tokenized Finance (IMF)

The IMF’s Tobias Adrian argues that tokenization is a structural reconfiguration of financial architecture that shifts trust and risk management from institutions to programmable infrastructures. Tokenization enables atomic, real-time settlement and embedded compliance across money, banking, capital markets, and financial market infrastructures, compressing value chains but also accelerating liquidity dynamics and potential stress transmission. For emerging and developing economies, although tokenization may lower payment and market-access frictions, it heightens risks of volatile capital flows, currency substitution, and fragmented liquidity. The note emphasizes that the long-term success of tokenization depends on anchoring digital finance in public trust through clear policy frameworks and safe settlement assets, robust governance of code, legal certainty, and international coordination. Absent such anchors, tokenization risks amplifying financial instability through speed, concentration, and fragmentation, as contract-based risk management alter the nature of settlement, liquidity, and systemic risk. [IMF]

Results of the SNB 2025 Payment Methods Survey of Private Individuals (SNB)

The Swiss National Bank (SNB) reported its 2025 survey results on payment behavior among private individuals in Switzerland. The SNB finds that use of payment methods at physical points of sale is largely unchanged from 2024, with debit cards leading, followed by cash and mobile payment apps, based on diary and questionnaire responses from roughly 2,000 residents. For policy and cash-infrastructure design, satisfaction with cash access has dropped from 88% to 81%, likely reflecting the continued reduction of automated teller machines and similar access points, which may pressure authorities to reconsider minimum cash-access standards or incentives for basic cash services. At the same time, only 2% of respondents support abolishing cash, underscoring that cash still fulfills a demanded role in retail payments and resilience planning. [SNB]

And now for more backfilling, more of which is to come…

Do We Really Need the Digital Euro: A Solution to What Problem Exactly? (IEA)

[April 30, 2025] The Instituto Espanol de Analysts (IEA) published a book that included a chapter by European Parliament rapporteur Fernando Navarette, that argues that a digital euro is a mis-specified response to Europe’s payments challenges and should be downgraded to a contingency “Plan B.” He contends that the core problems—trust in money post‑crisis, overreliance on non‑EU payment schemes, and stablecoin‑driven currency substitution—are better addressed through institutional and regulatory reforms, wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC), and pan‑European instant‑payment solutions based on commercial bank money. Navarrete stresses that retail CBDC is inherently destabilizing for bank funding, raises unresolved privacy and governance risks, and risks crowding out private innovation, especially if coupled with legal tender and complex “waterfall” mechanics. He instead proposes a three‑pillar architecture: private‑led interoperable instant payments, a narrowly scoped offline digital euro, and wholesale CBDC—leaving a full retail CBDC only as a last‑resort backup if private efforts fail. [IEA]

The eNaira Journey So Far (in 2023) (CBN)

[In 2023] the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) published a book on the economics of digital currencies in which there was a review of how the eNaira central bank digital currency (CBDC) was designed, launched, and managed. It argues that weak demand reflects structural and institutional frictions rather than purely technological failure. The review documents a phased rollout focused on financial inclusion, payment efficiency, and monetary control, but shows that limited interoperability, burdensome onboarding, and unclear value propositions constrained uptake. It emphasizes how institutional choices around wallet tiers, distribution architecture, and bank–fintech roles reshaped market incentives, often reinforcing banks’ dominance rather than fostering broader innovation. It highlights the need to recalibrate design toward open interfaces, clearer legal and regulatory frameworks, and better alignment between central bank objectives and private‑sector business models. [CBN]

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 (20260401)

~ kiffmeister

The Eurosystem’s Comprehensive Payments Strategy (ECB)

The European Central Bank (ECB) set out the Eurosystem’s comprehensive two pronged payments strategy, defining its vision for the evolution of European payments under rapid technological change. The first prong is upgrading core infrastructures such as T2, the real time gross settlement backbone for high value and time critical payments during business days, and TIPS, the 24/7 Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) instant retail settlement layer, while developing distributed ledger technology based wholesale settlement via Pontes and Appia. The second prong is a retail digital euro, with tokenized deposits and regulated, EU governed stablecoins in a complementary role. The strategy links tokenization choices to preserving the singleness of money, monetary sovereignty, and financial stability, reduces dependence on non European schemes, and embeds strategic autonomy and cyber resilience into core infrastructures and retail acceptance layers. It also promotes deeper integration of cross border and corporate payments through instant payments, standardization, and interlinking fast payment systems. [ECB]