The Bank of Canada (BOC) has published two survey reports in the last few months. The first was the Methods of Payment survey 2021 and the second the Merchant Acceptance Survey Pilot Study.

The five countries who spend the most using mobile payments at the point of sale are China, America, the UK, France and Japan.

Does paying with mobile digital payments increase consumers’ marginal propensity to consume? If there is to be an increase in the use of mobile payments this has implications for consumers, merchants and governments. A paper from Claremont Graduate University sets out to answer this.

The World Bank’s Financial Inclusion Global Initiative (FIGI) has issued a paper investigating Incentives for Electronic Payment Acceptance (EPA). The report was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Last year, the International Banknote Designers Association (IBDA) held a virtual conference. One speaker, Dr Franklin Noll, presented his thoughts on how we’ll be paying in ten years time.

Quick Response (QR) codes, tiny black-and-white squares, can be read at ten times the speed of traditional bar codes; hence they were called ‘Quick Response’ codes or QR codes for short. They are two-dimensional black and white barcodes that can reveal a URL (web address) or other information with a scanning device.

David Birch, the author, adviser and investor in digital financial services, has recently posted an article on Linkedin, ‘Why would anyone think it is a good idea?’. There is the argument is that shop keepers could always have accepted Bitcoin, but now they have to.

On 15 October 2021 the UK raises its contactless limit to £100 from £45. It also raises the cumulative transaction limit to £300 before a PIN must be entered. This increase means the UK now has the highest contactless limit in Europe and the seventh highest in the world.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has called for a ‘digital Bretton Woods’ to set standards for digital currency and trade systems. Its call comes in the context of today’s digital platforms that handle more than just finance, but trade, tax and audits, and it does this across borders.

Peterson K Ozili has written about financial inclusion and why it is harder than it looks. Many of the barriers are within the control of governments to remove by investment and subsidies. Others, the cultural, social and income barriers are a much more significant challenge.