In monetary exchange, holding money is evidence of past transactions of goods sold or services rendered. In effect, money can be seen as a record-keeping device. A monetary system needs a record of who has what and where it has moved.

A paper by PCMI assesses opportunities for stablecoins in cross-border payments1. Stablecoins are blockchain-based digital assets pegged to a fiat currency and around $210 billion worth are in circulation, the largest issuers being Tether (USDT) and Circle (USDC).

In January the European Central Bank made an announcement about stablecoins which led to some readers believing it had said stablecoin issuers would be able to back euro stablecoins with central bank reserves. A paper by the Bretton Woods Committee, while literally correct in what it said, also added to this misunderstanding. A clarification was issued.

Lars Hupel, from Giesecke+Devrient (G+D), makes the case for the importance of offline functionality in payments in a new white paper titled ‘Secure Offline Digital Payments’.

The Bank of England (BOE) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Digital Currency Initiative (MIT DCI) have published a paper exploring privacy enhancing technologies (PETs) for a possible digital pound.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City has written a paper investigating who is underserved when it comes to digital payments, the starting point for working out how to include them in today’s digital economy.

Mastercard’s President of Global Enterprise Growth, Raghu Malhotra, gave his views on Digital Payment Regulations in Asia recently to Asia Business Outlook. His starting point was to argue for harmonised regulations in order to increase cross-border transactions and financial inclusion. If there can be a seamless operation across four countries versus a single country, the economics will differ and benefit the end consumer and merchants.

The European Central Bank (ECB) has published a working paper looking at ensuring that a digital euro does not impact financial stability or the transmission of monetary policy.

It is unclear whether the public and merchants will use a central bank digital currency (CBDC) to make a payment. The European Central Bank (ECB) has published a paper that explores this based on survey payment data and using a quantitative framework that estimates CBDC demand based on individuals’ preferences for the attributes of different payment options.

The ECB has published a blog ‘Making the digital euro truly private’, with privacy an important concern for CBDCs. A strong focus on privacy will never convince sceptics and the realities of know your customer and anti-terror funding legislation have to be accommodated.