If you pay for something with a banknote the transaction involves you and the merchant. With the arrival of cheques banks became involved. The credit and debit card required the four pillar model that remains the basic platform for most digital payments, involving four parties (issuer bank, acquirer bank, merchant and cardholder. This four pillar model has at least six steps between the card being tendered and the transaction being completed.

A survey of UK consumers by LHV Bank finds growing frustration with both traditional and digital banks.

Sveriges Riksbank (Riksbank) works to ensure that payments in Sweden are safe, efficient, and accessible. They need to function in peacetime, crisis, and states of heightened alert. The Riksbank publishes a payments report most years, although 2023 was an exception. The latest report describes and analyses developments in the payments market over the past year.

Banco Central do Brasil launched Pix, its real-time payment (RTP) system, in November 2020. Pix has a sophisticated technological infrastructure that was developed and is operated, managed and regulated by the central bank.