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Xfers launched a Singapore dollar-pegged XSGD stablecoin. Xfers has a Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) Major Payment Institution (MPI) e-money issuance license. All XSGD tokens are backed 1:1 with Singapore Dollars held in Xfers' reserve held in segregated accounts with a fully regulated MAS-approved bank. Xfers claims that XSGD is the world's first stablecoin to be be compliant with the Financial Action Task Force's travel rule, so financial institutions can use it for cross-border money transfers as well.

The European Central Bank's recent report exploring the idea of issuing a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) claims that "regulations do not allow anonymity in electronic payments and the digital euro must in principle comply with such regulations". In fact, the Fifth EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AML5) exempts issuers of e-money/prepaid cards from collecting customer information if user holdings do not exceed EUR50 (EUR150 for non-rechargeable stored value cards). Why did the EU build an anonymity exemption into payments law but now chooses to avoid exploiting it in potential CBDC designs?

Visa published a technical paper that outlines an approach for offline point-to-point payments between two devices. The protocol allows digital money to be directly downloaded onto a personal device, such as a smartphone or tablet. The money is stored on a secure hardware embedded in that device and managed by a wallet provider (e.g. a bank). CBDC can be transacted from one device to another device directly without any intermediaries such as banks, payment networks, or payment processors. Examples of the underlying technology that can support point-to-point payments include Bluetooth and Near Field Communication (NFC).

China is reportedly exploring putting expiration dates on its e-CNY retail central bank digital currency (CBDC), which could force holders to use it up by a certain date. This idea has most recently been explored in a Celo working paper that advocated using expiration dates to increase the "velocity" of money, based on an an unconventional monetary policy instrument known as a Gesell money.

Two recent papers by Christian Pfister examine the state of play and short- to long-term prospects for payments, money and finance in the digital era. The first paper focuses on short- to medium term developments, and two forms of public sector, intervention; regulatory and production-based. He argues that the regulatory approach should be considered against the potential costs, like the creation of barriers to entry and protection of established players, which makes it ambiguous from the point of view of competition. Production-based intervention, such as the introduction of central bank digital currency (CBDC), aiming to provide an alternative to private supply is much stronger than regulation, and has its own ambiguities. Hence, before intervening, the public authority should ensure that private initiatives are unable to meet a clearly expressed need (i.e., there must be a "market failure"), and the benefits outweigh any disadvantages.

In July 2024, DeCurret plans to commercialize its DCJPY tokenized deposit network of over 100 Japanese institutions and enterprises that have explored proofs of concept (PoCs) for various use cases. DeCurret outlined several consumer oriented use cases, including retail in-store usage, to buy non fungible tokens (NFTs), and consumer carbon credits. All of them have programmable money elements. The DCJPY platform envisages a financial zone where banks issue deposit tokens and the money transfers take place, and separate distributed ledger technology (DLT) business zone networks (e.g., a metaverse zone, an NFT zone and an environmental value zone).

Canada's Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) Digital Policy Hub published a paper by Ori Freiman on central bank digital currency (CBDC) governance, focusing particularly on programmability and privacy/surveillance. Although programmable money and payments can support social policies, they also raise questions about the authorities' influence and control, and how to ensure there is no abuse of power. Privacy is a significant CBDC design challenge because meeting financial integrity (e.g., AML/CFT) requirements while offering cash-like anonymity seems incompatible. Authorities' access to citizens' data could lead to state-level surveillance, threatening civil liberties and human rights. Even if safeguards are put in place, CBDC infrastructure could be changed and initial safeguards overridden, rendering this risk a time-consistency problem. Eleven policy recommendations are suggested on privacy and data rights, accessibility, public participation and oversight, prohibiting programmable money, legislation protecting cash and more.

A Florida man has chosen the next cultural wars flashpoint he will rally behind in an effort to mobilize the 2024 US presidential electorate: central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). "Such a currency would give a federal government, our federal government, the absolute control over your money," the former Wrestlemania star declared of CBDCs from a rally in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on Wednesday. "They could take your money - you wouldn't even know it was gone. This would be a dangerous threat to freedom." The busy former reality television host and American president took a moment away from his E. Jean Carroll defamation damages trial to attend the rally where he promised his CBDC blocking actions would "protect Americans from government tyranny."

Visa published a report on its tokenized deposit trial with HSBC and Hang Seng Bank, which involved (i) settling high value real estate transaction and (ii) settling Visa card payments. In Hong Kong there are restrictions on faster payment amounts, so the real estate transaction supported a high value instant payment with tokenized deposits. With tokenized deposits, when a payee transfers money to a recipient, the sending bank burns the tokens and the recipient bank mints them so they appear in the recipient's wallet. Instant settlement is facilitated by wholesale CBDC, with the token and CBDC exchanges happening simultaneously, so there's no settlement risk. https://usa.visa.com/content/dam/VCOM/regional/na/us/Solutions/documents/e-hkd-and-the-future-of-global-money-movement.pdf?linkId=492498536

Societe Generale - Forge was awarded an Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license by France's Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR), making its EURCV stablecoin compliant with the EU Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulations that came into force on June 30, 2024. To date there hasn't been a huge amount of EURCV activity. The current EURCV balance is €11.1 million, with one wallet holding a €10.3 million balance and Bitstamp just under €600,000. https://www.sgforge.com/stablecoin-elevation/

100% e-money and the corresponding regulation are compared to two models where the CBDC providing third-party is either an intermediary or a custodian.

WeChat can now open digital yuan wallets by registering through Tencent-backed WeBank, so they can make payments and transfer money digital yuan directly within WeChat. The expanded feature comes after the People's Bank of China (PBoC) recently expanded the e-CNY pilot areas to 23 cities and special zones.

"We propose a two-phased approach. In the first phase, the BoC introduces a centralized platform as a public-good infrastructure that establishes digital cash and ensures global/domestic interoperability. In this phase, e-KYC-based authentication leverages existing private/public sector solutions but also safeguards users' privacy/data against third-party commercial interests while complying with AML/CFT. In the second phase, the BoC will expand the platform to an enterprise-level permissioned blockchain. This shared resource will transform CBDLs into "programmable e-money" within a "social operating system" that will enable Canadians to operate, innovate, compete, and thrive in this new global digital economy."

Europe's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation has been published in the official European Union Journal. MiCA will now enter into force at the end of June 2023, and 12 months later for stablecoins, (e.g., e-money tokens and asset referenced tokens) and in 18 months for general crypto-assets and crypto-asset service providers (CASPs). https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=OJ:L:2023:150:TOC

Jonas Gross and Conrad Kraft argue that, although the slow uptake of retail CBDC pilots and launches may be viewed as disappointing by some, it isn't uncommon among transformative payment technologies (e.g., credit cards, online banking and e-wallets). They provide a number of key factors that can guide the gradual transition to wider-spread CBDC adoption, such as education and awareness, maintaining a focus on technological advancements and security, developing regulations that support CBDC growth, and collaborating with all stakeholders, including merchants, banks and payment service providers. And most importantly, "CBDC must offer unique features that surpass the capabilities of existing payment instruments... A CBDC that merely replicates current digital money, differing only in its central bank backing (largely imperceptible to potential users), won't attract widespread use."

"Being a finalist in this competition, this manuscript presents a design proposal for a Central Bank Digital Loonie (CBDL) based on careful academic research of the possible technological, legal, and economic components of such an unprecedented and historic expedition. We propose a two-phased approach. In the first phase, the BoC introduces a centralized platform as a public-good infrastructure that establishes digital cash and ensures global/domestic interoperability. In this phase, e-KYC-based authentication leverages existing private/public sector solutions but also safeguards users' privacy/data against third-party commercial interests while complying with AML/CFT. In the second phase, the BoC will expand the platform to an enterprise-level permissioned blockchain. This shared resource will transform CBDLs into "programmable e-money" within a "social operating system" that will enable Canadians to operate, innovate, compete, and thrive in this new global digital economy."

Sweden's Riksbank published an update on its technical work aimed at examining how an e-krona could work if a decision is taken in the future to issue central bank digital currency (CBDC). The focus during Phase 3 has been to examine how the Riksbank could interact with other actors in the payment market to give the general public access to, and the possibility to pay with, an e-krona, how conditional payments can be made and whether a digital central bank currency can simplify cross-border payments.

Back in December 2021, Ukraine's Ministry of Digital Transformation launched its ePidtrymka digital payment system to distribute COVID-related stimulus funds to fully-vaccinated Ukraine citizens who are over 18. The card is issued free of charge both online and offline at participating bank branches. The money can be spent on books, gyms, tickets to the cinema, theater, museums, concerts or transportation in the Ukraine, but money had to be used within four months, after which the account is closed.

"Libra does not appear to qualify as e-money, as it does not embody a claim of its holders against the Libra Association."

This BIS paper assesses emerging financial integrity (e.g., anti-money laundering) regulatory approaches and supervisory practices and identifies policy priorities to address common challenges faced by financial authorities. It points to opportunities to adopt new approaches, like blockchain analytics, that take advantage of the inherently data-rich nature of the cryptoasset sector. Also, the inherently cross-border nature of crypto-assets, as well as the uneven global implementation of international standards in this area, make international cooperation a critical component for effective supervision.