The Role of Mobile Money Accounts
There is a sustained point made around the role of mobile money accounts particularly in developing/Global South countries, with a view that mobile money is a displacer of cash. Analysis by Matt Sykes of the CPT Group of data published by GSMA suggests that it is more complex than that.
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The True Cost of AI
A recent article by Chris Skinner highlights the challenge of getting best value from using Artificial Intelligence (AI). This calculation applies to organisations, such as central banks, who are starting to integrate AI into the core of what they do.
News in Brief
An article on LinkedIn by José Ricón Rodriguez, using information from Datos Insights' Global ATM Intelligence Service, reports that for the first time since 2012, the United States is once again the world's largest ATM market. Not because it grew, but because China shrank faster.
Retail Digital Payments: Competition, Innovation and the Role of Central Banks
A recent BIS Bulletin reviewed developments in retail digital payments across advanced economies and emerging markets, finding that while digitalisation has expanded choice and convenience, it has not automatically produced effective competition — and that central banks are playing an increasingly active role in supporting interoperability and market contestability.
Understanding the Impact of Digital Payments
CPMI data shows digital payment use continued to rise in 2024 across 31 jurisdictions, with growth especially strong in emerging economies — but the on-the-ground picture remains inconsistent, reflecting local circumstances.
Currency Complexity in Cambodia: Cash and Bakong, Riel and Dollar
A new MPRA paper reviews possible changes to cash circulation governance in Cambodia, examining de-dollarisation challenges, the Bakong digital payment system, and lessons from four other central banking systems.
Payment News
The Bank of Central African States (BEAC) is modernising payments across the six Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC) countries – Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Republic of Congo – through a series of interoperable infrastructure initiatives. Its aim is to make digital payments easier across member states while supporting regional financial inclusion targets of 60% by 2029 and 75% by 2032.
Canada: Cash Remains a Cornerstone of the Monetary Landscape
A new Bank of Canada 2025 Methods of Payment Survey finds cash use at the point of sale remains stable, holdings are growing, and public perception of cash is increasingly positive – affirming its enduring role in economic resilience and inclusion.
CBDC News
CBDCs are emerging as a potential settlement layer for tokenised finance, according to Dr Wolfram Seidemann, CEO of Giesecke+Devrient Currency Technology. As tokenisation moves from pilots to implementation, financial institutions are focusing on how digital assets can settle safely, efficiently and at scale. Seidemann argues that wholesale CBDCs, as tokenised central bank money for institutional use, could enable instant transactions, reduce counterparty risk, improve liquidity management and support payment-versus-payment or delivery-versus-payment settlement.
Who Pays for Payments?
A Harvard Business School working paper analyses US payment interchange fees to reveal how wealth is redistributed across income groups – finding that cash and debit users effectively subsidise high-reward credit card holders to the tune of $30 billion a year.
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