Projects to develop a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) for use by consumers and businesses are “more advanced” and “particularly strong” in emerging economies, according to analysis by global consultancy firm PwC... More
Blockchain
UK Treasury and Bank of England launch CBDC taskforce to explore digital currency options
The UK Treasury and the Bank of England have established a central bank digital currency (CBDC) taskforce to coordinate research into the benefits, risks and practicalities of introducing a digital pound... More
ECB survey reveals Europeans expect digital euro to be private, secure and easy to use
More than two-fifths (43%) of Europeans rank privacy as the most important feature of a digital euro central bank digital currency (CBDC), with 18% citing security, 11% the ability to pay across the eurozone, 9% the lack of additional costs and 8% offline usability, according to a European Central Bank (ECB) survey... More
Russia to create digital ruble prototype by December
The Central Bank of Russia will build a prototype central bank digital currency (CBDC) by December 2021 using a two-tier structural model unveiled by bank representatives at a press conference... More
East Caribbean Central Bank launches digital currency
Residents of Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Saint Lucia and St Kitts and Nevis can now pay for goods and services and make peer-to-peer money transfers from their smartphones using the East Caribbean Central Bank’s DCash central bank digital currency (CBDC)... More
Chinese banks roll out digital yuan wallets
Customers of all six state-owned Chinese banks can now apply for test versions of the banks’ digital yuan wallets as the country rolls out the next phase of its central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot programme in the city of Changsha... More
Visa settles first transaction in digital currency
Visa has become the first major payments network to settle a transaction with an issuing or acquiring partner by exchanging funds in digital currency rather than in traditional fiat currency... More
WSJ video shows China’s digital yuan in action in stores
The Wall Street Journal has posted a video report showing Chinese consumers in the city of Chengdu using the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) to make in-store NFC and QR code payments from a digital yuan wallet on their mobile phone... More
Jamaica to launch central bank digital currency in 2022
Jamaica is to pilot a central bank digital currency (CBDC) over the course of this year and begin rolling it out in 2022, the country’s minister of finance Nigel Clarke has revealed during a budget speech... More
Chinese banks issue digital yuan wallets to Shanghai customers
Some 8,500 consumers in the Chinese city of Shanghai have been given e-wallets containing digital yuan as part of the country’s ongoing pilot scheme for its central bank digital currency (CBDC)... More
Care home pilots biometric digital health passport
Staff at the Warren Manor care facility in Blackpool in the UK are piloting a digital passport that enables them to verify their Covid-19 vaccination, test or recovery status when they arrive at their workplace by scanning their finger... More
Tencent and Ant to integrate digital yuan wallets into mobile banking apps
Tencent-backed WeBank and Ant-backed MyBank are conducting “preliminary work under the guidance of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC)” in order to integrate the digital yuan wallet into their payment and banking services, according to a China Securities report... More
Russian carriers seek digital ruble mobile wallet role
Russian mobile network operators Beeline and MegaFon are looking to develop digital wallets for smartphones and other mobile devices that will support the central bank digital currency (CBDC) which is being developed by The Central Bank of Russia (CBR)... More
Mastercard and Island Pay launch CBDC-linked prepaid card in the Bahamas
Citizens of the Bahamas can now pay for goods and services using a prepaid card that supports the country’s Sand Dollar central bank digital currency (CBDC)... More
Estonia partners with World Health Organization for digital vaccine passport pilot
Estonia is to test digital vaccine passports that will enable residents to prove they have been inoculated against Covid-19 as part of a project to create a globally recognised electronic certification programme... More
Amazon to build digital currency payments solution?
Amazon is recruiting a tech team that will be tasked with building “innovative payment products for customers in emerging markets” that will enable “customers to convert their cash into digital currency” to purchase “goods and/or services like Prime Video”, a job advertisement posted by the company reveals... More
Survey: Eight in ten central banks are now actively engaged in digital currency projects
More than four-fifths of the world’s central banks (86%) are engaged in “some form of work” on a central bank digital currency (CBDC), up from “about one third” in 2019, according to a Bank for International Settlements (BIS) survey... More
PBOC to launch third digital yuan trial in Shenzhen
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) is to follow its pilots of NFC-based contactless digital currency payments with the distribution of a further 20m digital yuan (US$3.1m) in a third ‘red envelope’ lottery to be held in the city of Shenzhen... More
EU to debut digital euro project this year?
The European Commission and the European Central Bank (ECB) are to consider launching a digital euro project towards the middle of 2021. “Such a project would answer key design and technical questions,” the two institutions say in a joint statement. More
China unveils plan to build a global payment network based on central bank digital currencies
China’s Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN) has revealed plans to develop a universal digital payments network (UDPN) based on standardised procedures for international transfers and payments with and between central bank digital currencies (CBDCs)... More