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"Crunchfish was a finalist for its innovation Digital Cash on non-mobile devices, in the global hackathon "HARBINGER 2021 - Innovation for Transformation", organized by RBI, the Reserve Bank of India. The overall objective of the hackathon was to identify and enable innovations with the potential to transform the digital payments landscape. Crunchfish participated for the problem statement - Non Mobile Digital Payment Solutions."

"Paying with a mobile phone is a cutting-edge innovation transforming the global payments landscape. Some developing countries have surprisingly overtaken advanced economies in adopting the mobile payment innovation. We construct a dynamic model with sequential payment innovations to explain this puzzle, which uncovers how advanced economies' past success in adopting card-payment technology holds them back in the mobile-payment race. Our calibrated model matches the cross-country adoption patterns of card and mobile payments and also explains why advanced and developing countries favor different mobile payment solutions. Based on the model, we conduct quantitative exercises for welfare and policy analyses."

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) announced the first batch of six new projects in its 2024 Innovation Hub work program including experimentations on digital payments cyber security and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Project Leap starts its phase II, aiming to "quantum-proof" payment systems, after successfully establishing a quantum-safe communication channel between the central banks of France and Germany in its first phase. Project Aurum enters a new phase in which it will study the privacy of payments in retail CBDCs. The recently started Project Promissa tests the feasibility of tokenizing promissory notes, financial instruments that help fund multilateral development banks and other international financial institutions. All these new initiatives will be added to existing projects that various Innovation Hub Centres will continue to develop this year:  FuSSE, Gaia, Mandala, mBridge phase III, Nexus phase III, Pyxtrial, Rio and Viridis. https://www.bis.org/about/bisih/about.htm

The Bank for International Settlements is launching an "innovation hub" as part of a broader medium-term strategy.

The US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency proposed an Innovation Pilot Program, designed to provide OCC-supervised entities with regulatory input early in the testing of innovative activities.

The Board of the Bank for International Settlements has approved the establishment of a BIS Innovation Hub to foster international collaboration on innovative financial technology within the central banking community.

The Riksbank is making a bid to host a BIS Innovation Hub, a new initiative by the "bank of central banks" that now wants to scatter the world with local financial innovation policy clearinghouses.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), Danmarks Nationalbank, Central Bank of Iceland, Norges Bank and Sveriges Riksbank today launched the BIS Innovation Hub Nordic Centre in Stockholm. The BIS Innovation Hub's work programme is currently focused on six areas: suptech and regtech; next generation financial market infrastructures; central bank digital currencies; open finance; cyber security; and green finance. Work related to these themes is spread among the various Hub Centres, although specific projects have not yet been finalised for the Nordic Centre.

The Swiss National Bank and University of Basel Center for Innovative Finance are inviting paper submissions for a conference on Cryptoassets and Financial Innovation, to be held in Zurich on May 29, 2020.

The Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) on Sunday appointed Benoît Cœuré as Head of the new BIS Innovation Hub, set up to foster international collaboration among central banks on innovative financial technology.

The European Commission Expert Group on Regulatory Obstacles to Financial Innovation published its recommendations on how to create an accommodative framework for Fintech. The group's 30 recommendations are pertaining to the innovative use of technology in finance, maintaining a level playing field, access to data, and the financial inclusion and ethical use of data.

We are particularly keen to take part in experiments to integrate a "wholesale" CBDC into innovative procedures for exchanging and settling tokenised financial assets. Our actions will naturally contribute to the work of the Eurosystem, which should make looking into the possibility of an "e-euro"... Beyond this, we intend to take part in the work of the BIS Innovation Hub.

The Central Bank of the UAE and the Abu Dhabi Global Market, the capital's international financial hub, invited fintech companies to compete in the annual FinTech Abu Dhabi Innovation Challenge. This year's challenge aims at developing innovative solutions to serve the financing needs of small and medium-sized enterprises. It also seeks to drive the adoption of regulatory technology solutions to "improve compliance outcomes and enhance regulatory processes".

"Earlier this year, I spoke about whether the Fed should offer a general-purpose central bank digital currency (CBDC) to the American public. My skepticism about the need for a CBDC, which I still hold, comes in part from the real and rapid innovation taking place in payments. My argument-simple as it sounds-is that payments innovation, and the competition it brings, is good for consumers. The market and the public are telling us there is room for improvement in the U.S. payment system. We should take that message to heart and provide a safe and sound way for those improvements to occur."

Ripple announced the 15 winners of Phase I of its CBDC Innovate Challenge who will move forward to Phase II, where they will begin building, refining, and developing their applications. The goal of CBDC Innovate 2023 is to build or update a fintech or payments solution utilizing Ripple's CBDC solutions. In Phase I applicants ideated applications on the public XRP Ledger. In Phase II the 15 finalists, including WhisperCash, will build on Ripple's Private CBDC Platform.

Ripple has announced the CBDC Innovate challenge, with a total prize pool of $150,000. The Ripple CBDC Innovate challenge seeks to inspire programmers to build applications capable of running on the XRP Ledger and supporting retail central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), interoperability and financial inclusion. The deadline for the first batch of submissions is August 25. Competitors are expected to build or update a fintech or payment solution that makes use of CBDC and can run on the XRP Ledger, create a solution that can take advantage of CBDC's advantages or create an interface that allows any human to engage with a CBDC.

According to the Bank of Canada, decentralized finance (DeFi) has grown rapidly in scale and scope, forming a complex ecosystem with a high degree of interconnectedness. Its innovative elements, such as smart contracts, composability and tokenization, hold potential for future monetary and payment systems. However, challenges remain, as DeFi introduces new risks to the financial system. Policy-makers and regulators need to strike a balance between promoting innovation and mitigating risk.

"The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) today announced that Raphael Auer will join the BIS Innovation Hub (BISIH) team as the head of the upcoming Eurosystem Centre, expected to open in the first half of 2022. Mr Auer is currently a principal economist in the BIS' Monetary and Economic Department, working with the unit dedicated to Innovation and the Digital Economy."

Cecilia Skingsley, First Deputy Governor of Sveriges Riksbank, appointed to head the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub. The Hub serves as a platform for central bank collaboration in building technological solutions to problems in the financial sector. Five Hub Centers are already operating in Hong Kong, London, Singapore, Stockholm and Switzerland. Two more, in Frankfurt/Paris and Toronto, are expected to open later this year. The Innovation Hub also has in place a Strategic Partnership with the Federal Reserve System.

BoE Governor Carney highlights the opportunities offered by Fintech, saying we're moving to a new kind of economy, which needs new kinds of financial services. He explains what the BoE is doing to embrace and support this financial innovation.