A recent article in Forbes makes the case for Self-Sovereign Decentralised Identity to be used to address privacy issues with CBDCs.

The fifth edition of the Global Fintech Fest (GFF) 2024 was held 28-30 August in Mumbai. It focused on the ‘Blueprint for the Next Decade of Finance: Responsible AI, Inclusive, Resilient’. The GFF is organised by the Payments Council of India (PCI), the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), and the Fintech Convergence Council (FCC).

Those who oppose CBDC use a range of arguments. One is a general argument that fiat money allows governments to expand the money supply at will, removing the constraint on government to pursue ‘sound money’.

The ‘Privacy Paradox’ is where people claim more concern with privacy than their actual behaviour indicates. This ‘say-do gap’ exists in many areas, including the need for cash to be maintained, but despite that, it means organisations are forced to respond.

At the recent Cash Sustainability Forum in Frankfurt, Cash InfraPro presented on the challenges and opportunities of making the cash supply chain work well.

The World Economic Forum has recently published an article describing Colombia’s work to create Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), a key element of which is interoperable digital payments.

The CBDC Conference takes place 10- 12 September in Istanbul. One recently announced element of the agenda is a Governor’s panel chaired by John Ho, Standard Chartered.

As a worldwide partner to the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Visa has a monopoly on all debit, credit and mobile payments. Spectators are venting their frustration. Paradoxically, the campaign demonstrates the importance of cash in terms of inclusion, protection of privacy and resilience.

August is one of those months where much of the world slows down, particularly in the northern hemisphere, creating an opportunity for a more reflective piece. As a result, this edition spends some time looking to the future.

The Bank of Canada has issued a staff discussion paper considering the role of retail public money at a time when new technology and new participants, some non-financial firms, are entering the process of money creation.

Revolut has recently received a UK banking licence. It has 9 million UK customers, 45 million globally. It has now announced that those customers can deposit cash into their accounts.

In June, the Mint Director’s Association held a webinar focusing on artificial intelligence (AI) as a tool and how it can be implemented to improve productivity. While coins were the focus of the talk, the theme applies to all currency and business in general. The webinar was hosted by Mr Aditya Berlia – an entrepreneur, educator, and AI advocate – and sponsored by Carveco.

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.

In the face of US and European Commission regulatory pressure, Apple is enabling iPhones to make contactless payments to third party providers. It will though, charge associated fees.

David Birch has written about the presentation made by Sarah Breeden, Deputy Governor at the Bank of England, at the Swiss National Bank’s event ‘Towards the future of the monetary system’. In it she described two waves of benefits from tokenisation. In the short term it will bring greater efficiency to the existing payment and settlement system. In the longer term she sees radical change to post-trade processes.

The Bank of England (BoE) has published its approach to innovation in money and payments, proposing a programme to test infrastructure that supports the settlement of central bank money against digital assets such as stablecoins, tokenised deposits and other innovations. The Bank has published previous papers on the regulation of stablecoins, innovations by deposit-takers and CBDCs.

Tobias Adrian, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Financial Counsellor and Director of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department, spoke at the International Symposium on Central Bank Independence in Stockholm at the start of the year. His topic was maintaining central bank independence alongside the development of payments and Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC).

Sweden’s Riksbank has started to look at the climate impact of adopting a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).

The European Central Bank’s Product Environmental Footprint study found that 82% of the environmental impact of banknotes happened post-issue. In addition, all around the world cash usage is changing. Stakeholders are having to rethink how cash is organised.

The Bank for International Settlements has published a report stating that central banks should be using Artificial Intelligence to improve their analytical tools.