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The Financial Stability Board (FSB) published a report setting out priority actions for achieving the G20 targets for enhancing cross-border payments. They focus on three interrelated priority themes; (i) payment system interoperability and extension, including the extension of real-time gross settlement (RTGS) operating hours and access policies and improving payment system interoperability, (ii) the promotion of an efficient legal, regulatory and supervisory environment for cross-border payments while maintaining their safety, security and integrity, and (iii) facilitating cross-border data exchange and increasing the use of standardized messaging formats. https://www.fsb.org/2023/02/g20-roadmap-for-enhancing-cross-border-payments-priority-actions-for-achieving-the-g20-targets/

The Group of Twenty (G20) unanimously adopted the "G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Communique" during its meeting in Marrakesh, Morocco, and accepted the crypto regulatory roadmap proposed in the "IMF-FSB Synthesis Paper: Policies for Crypto-Assets" joint report published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Financial Stability Board (FSB) in September 2023. The paper advocates for comprehensive oversight of crypto instead of a blanket ban. Its high-level recommendations include cross-border cooperation and information sharing between regulators, a demand for comprehensive governance and risk management frameworks for crypto companies, and a guarantee of access to relevant data provided by companies to the authorities. https://twitter.com/FinMinIndia/status/1712589236765893035

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) published its report to the G20 on the framework for monitoring progress toward meeting the targets for the G20 Roadmap for Enhancing Cross-border Payments, to achieve cheaper, faster, more transparent, and more accessible payments. The framework includes key performance indicators defined across the 11 targets for the three market segments - wholesale, retail, and remittances. Notably, the definitions of the wholesale and retail market segments have been adjusted to more clearly separate the differing use cases and end-user experiences and better align the definitions with those most typically used by the payments industry and end-users. Wholesale transactions were defined as those between financial institutions, and retail transactions as those that were neither between financial institution end-users nor in the third market segment - remittances. Going forward, the wholesale market segment will include all payments with a value equal to or exceeding a specified threshold regardless of whether the end-users are financial institutions. The threshold will be set at a level that captures the use cases in this market segment, such as high-value corporate business-to-business. Relatedly, retail payments will be payments with a value less than the specified threshold, not including remittances.

The G20 and the Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub launched the G20 TechSprint Initiative to highlight the potential for new technologies to resolve regulatory compliance (RegTech) and supervision (SupTech) challenges. The BIS Innovation Hub published high-priority RegTech/SupTech operational problems and invited private firms to develop innovative technological solutions. The problem statements identify challenges in regulatory reporting, analytics, and monitoring and supervision, and have been developed from submissions received from Financial Stability Board member jurisdictions.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and Bank Indonesia announced the 21 shortlisted finalists for the G20 TechSprint CBDC challenge. The shortlisted teams now have until the end of August to complete their prototypes, which will then be judged by an independent expert panel convened by Bank Indonesia. Winners for each of the three categories will be announced in October ahead of the G20 Summit. Among the shortlisted were BitMint, R3, Ripple, S.e.A. (Stellar, eCurrency and ANZ), Bitt-IDEMIA, Crunchfish, and Giesecke+Devrient (G+D) Filia.

"Here is a summary of how G20 countries are currently regulating crypto assets."

The Financial Stability Board published a letter from its Chair Randal K. Quarles to G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors ahead of their meetings in Riyadh later this week. The letter notes that the global financial system is constantly facing new challenges. Technology is changing the nature of traditional finance; the non-bank sector has grown and requires deeper understanding and coordination among the supervisory and regulatory community. Pressures that can lead to market fragmentation exist. Concurrently, important supervisory and regulatory issues require attention, including stablecoins, cross-border payments, and "Tech" (particularly BigTech, RegTech, and SupTech).

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) published a public consultation on global targets for addressing the four challenges of cross-border payments. The quantitative targets proposed are a foundational step in the G20 Roadmap for Enhancing Cross-border Payments, which was endorsed by G20 Leaders in November 2020. The proposed targets set goals for improving cost, speed, transparency and access for cross-border payments in the coming years through the actions taken under the Roadmap. They will play an important role in defining the ambition of the work and creating accountability. They are intended to provide a common vision for the improvements that are being sought in cross-border payments services through the collaborative work of the private and public sectors.

Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said there was no talk among G20 finance leaders on the possibility of central banks issuing digital currencies, as part of efforts to enhance cross-border settlement services.

In a report to the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) said regulators need to cooperate to make measures such as the "travel rule" more effective. The organization will work to develop an international framework for authorities to coordinate and share information about virtual asset service providers (VASPs). The FATF also said it will be providing specific guidance on stablecoins for regulators at some future point.

Here are some specifics of the next steps from the FSB/G20 cross-border payments roadmap progress report: The BIS in collaboration with the IMF and WBG will organize a conference to share information and encourage collaboration on cross-border payments across (planned) CBDC implementations by March 2023. Additionally, the IMF and WBG will provide technical assistance on how to facilitate cross-border use of CBDC if requested. The Committee for CPMI will consider whether and how the use of well-designed and risk-managed stablecoin arrangements could enhance cross-border payments by addressing existing frictions, what opportunities and challenges this would entail, and how this could impact central banks' core functions.

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) published its inaugural annual report on key performance indicators (KPIs) for meeting the targets for cross-border payments and a consolidated report on progress under the roadmap. They provide a quantitative and qualitative overview about the challenges facing cross-border payments, the progress being made on the G20's priority actions, and public and private sector projects underway globally to enhance cross-border payments. The data confirms that user experiences differ substantially across regions. For example, payments involving some, typically lower income, regions tend to be among the furthest from the cost and speed targets across market segments. Furthermore, whereas in the retail segment, foreign exchange (FX) costs seem to be the largest component of total costs, the degree to which this is true differs across regions and use-cases; by contrast, in the remittances segment, other fees tend to be larger than FX costs.

The IMF published a paper on the macrofinancial implications of crypto-assets that they had delivered to the G20 in February. It concluded that "a widespread proliferation of crypto assets comes with substantial risks to the effectiveness of monetary policy, exchange rate management, and capital flow management measures, as well as to fiscal sustainability... Moreover, changes may be required to central bank reserve holdings, and the global financial safety net, yielding potential instability... Finally, banks may lose deposits and have to curtail lending."

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) published (i) a consolidated progress report for 2024 reporting on a broad range of actions being progressed as part of the G20 Roadmap for Enhancing Cross-Border Payments; (ii) a progress report on the implementation of the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI); and (iii) an annual progress report on meeting the improved user experience targets for cross-border payments. While more than half of the planned actions set out by the G20 have been completed, the FSB's key performance indicators which measure key aspects of the user experience in using payments services, suggest that further efforts are needed. The FSB emphasizes the importance of intensified effort and commitment from a range of stakeholders, including by domestic regulatory/oversight authorities and payments services providers.

The Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub (BISIH) updated on progress made on the G20 TechSprint initiative launched in April 2020, following an August 6-7 event among 20 shortlisted teams (selected from a pool of 128 submissions from 35 countries). The teams were given an opportunity to demonstrate their solutions to a panel of independent judges and receive feedback before the final judging, scheduled for October 2020. The judging panel includes private and public sector experts in the field of financial sector data and technology.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) announced the three winners of the G20 TechSprint challenge. The hackathon-style competition was launched in April 2020 to highlight the potential for technology to resolve regulatory compliance (regtech) and supervisory (suptech) challenges. The winners, chosen by an independent panel of experts, addressed one or more of its three problem topics. FNA won the dynamic information-sharing category for their solution FNA Platform for Dynamic Information Sharing and Real-Time Analytics, Tookitaki won in the monitoring and surveillance category for their solution Crypto-currency AML Typology Repository Management and ISDA-REGnosys won the regulatory reporting challenge for their solution Consistent Regulatory Reporting via the Common Domain Model.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub (BISIH) have launched the fourth edition of the G20 TechSprint, a global technology competition to promote innovative solutions aimed at improving cross-border payments. Developers from around the world should submit application from May 04, 2023 to June 04, 2023 and the TechSprint will conclude around August/ September 2023. The 2023 TechSprint will focus on AML/CFT/Sanctions technology solutions to reduce illicit finance risk, FX and liquidity technology solutions to enable settlement in emerging market and developing economy (EMDE) currencies, and technology solutions for multilateral cross-border CBDC platforms.

The first G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) meeting under India's presidency discussed key financial stability and regulatory priorities. India urged member nations to understand the macro-financial implications of crypto-assets and recommended formulating a coordinated global policy. In that regard, the Indian Presidency has proposed a joint technical paper by the IMF and the Financial Stability Board (FSB) which would synthesize the macroeconomic and regulatory perspectives of crypto-assets. Interest was also expressed in building a common taxonomy and a systematic classification of the crypto-asset universe.

"A wider use of new types of crypto-assets for retail payment purposes would warrant close scrutiny by authorities to ensure that that they are subject to high standards of regulation. The FSB and standard-setting bodies will monitor risks very closely and in a coordinated fashion, and consider additional multilateral responses as needed."

Following a summit in the Saudi-Arabian capital Riyadh over the weekend, representatives from G-20 financial institutions pressed countries that have not done so already to align themselves with global cryptocurrency standards from the intergovernmental organization, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).