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This paper by the Bank of Canada's Scott Hendry and Yu Zhu confirms the validity of central bank concerns that wide adoption of a private digital currency and decline in the use of central bank money may undermine monetary sovereignty. The analysis is based on a theoretical model in which fiat money and the digital currency differ in the types of transactions that they can serve, with the latter dominating in online transactions. Although the central bank wants to maintain the value of the fiat money by keeping low inflation in case households want to use the fiat money for transactions, a welfare-maximizing central bank would also want to encourage households to use e-money for transactions where e-money has an advantage. This can be achieved by raising inflation of fiat money since it is a substitute for e-money, and the incentive to raise inflation would dominate if the usage of fiat money was sufficently low. However, if the use of the central bank money becomes sufficiently low, this leads to high inflation and low welfare. The paper concludes that, to defend monetary sovereignty, the central bank should maintain or expand the use of central bank money, for example, by offering a central bank digital currency (CBDC) designed to be a perfect substitute for the private e-money.

The Bank of Canada (BOC) published a paper that argues that there is now and will continue to be a fundamental need for a relevant retail public money (cash or central bank digital currency (CBDC)) as part of a well-functioning monetary system in which public and private money coexist and complement each other while trading at par, allowing money to move back and forth safely and efficiently. The paper posits that increasing demand for digital payments and the declining use of cash could lead to a loss of the uniformity of money, adoption of alternative units of account and exclusion of some segments of the population. This could lead to frictions and potential abuse of market power by private money providers that could reduce the efficiency of the economy. Also, to perform its interlinking function, retail public money needs to be a viable payment option and a practical mechanism to transfer between private forms of money. The paper argues that a properly designed CBDC would help fill the gap and maintain the relevance of a retail public money in the economy.

Wirecard Card Solutions is authorised and supervised by the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to issue e-money and provide payment services including, issuing e-money onto prepaid cards. Wirecard is authorised under the Electronic Money Regulations 2011 (the EMRs) and its activities are also subject to requirements under the Payment Services Regulations 2017 (the PSRs). The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) is the U.K.'s statutory deposit insurance and investors compensation scheme for customers of authorised financial services firms. (https://www.fscs.org.uk/) However, FSCS protection does not apply to electronic money or payment services. Under the EMRs and PSRs, there are rules on how customers' money should be protected and these requirements are known as 'safeguarding'. The purpose of safeguarding is to protect and return customer money if a firm was to fail. Wirecard is required under the EMRs to maintain appropriate measures to safeguard customers money. It does this by holding it separate from its own money in accounts with banks (or another credit institution). Adequate safeguarding arrangements which are compliant with the regulatory requirements are a condition of Wirecard's ongoing FCA authorisation.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) unveiled three initiatives to ensure the safe and innovative use of digital money in Singapore. First there is the Orchid Blueprint that sets out the technology and infrastructure building blocks that would be required to facilitate digital money transactions in the future. Second there are four new Project Orchid digital money trials, including testing the broad applicability of purpose bound money, which enables money to be directed towards a specific purpose, without requiring money itself to be programmed. Third "live" wholesale CBDC will be tested, with the first pilot focusing on settling retail payments between commercial banks, and future pilots possibly focusing on settling cross-border securities trades. The Orchid Blueprint will support single-currency stablecoins that will be regulated for their value stability under MAS' proposed regulatory framework for stablecoin activities. The Blueprint will also support tokenized bank deposits issued by MAS-regulated banks.

Mobile money transactions hit a record high of $1.26 trillion in 2022 (versus $1 trillion in 2021), according to a new GSMA report. The number of registered mobile money accounts increased by 13% year-on-year to 1.6 billion, and the volume of mobile money-enabled international remittances increased by 28% to $22 billion. However, there is a wide gender gap, with mobile phone ownership remaining the main cause of this gap, although cultural norms also prevent women from adopting mobile money. "Women in low- and middle-income countries are 28% less likely than men to own a mobile money account," the report found. https://www.gsma.com/newsroom/press-release/mobile-money-exceeds-industry-expectations-reaching-a-transaction-value-of-1-26-usd-trillion-in-2022/

The GSMA has updated its analysis of the impact of COVID-19 regulatory responses on mobile money operators. Countries that have established emergency COVID-19 social cash transfer schemes are increasingly using mobile money to distribute money to vulnerable groups. There is also a preference for mobile money as a distribution tool for donor agencies involved in COVID-19 related social cash transfers. However, COVID-19 regulatory measures have since lapsed for a majority of the countries in accordance with the official communication issued by the regulatory authorities, particularly the waiver of mobile money fees. However, many regulators are moving to permanently maintain higher transaction and balance limits, and more flexible know-your-customer (KYC) and on-boarding.

Even if these problems for the various forms of programmable money can be overcome, it still leaves the question of what is programmable money for? Robert Sams points to the general potential for innovation, "More likely are the use-cases that don't even exist today and can't exist without programmable money. Use-cases where the contractual form of the deal is changed due to the capabilities of programmable money." Aleksi Grym (head of digitalisation at the Bank of Finland) has a less optimistic view. "Generally, I'm not a fan of new words for old concepts, so in this case I'm asking myself, what would a normal person call 'programmable money'? I think the answer is 'conditional payment'."

Money is too important to be left to central bankers. At the end of World War I, French prime minister Georges Clemenceau said, "War is too important to be left to the generals." Similarly, I feel that money is too important to be left to central bankers. A free society has so much to gain from the modernization of our financial system that could be brought about by crypto. But it has so much to lose if it doesn't have a say in what values are going to be encoded in the future of money, whether it's non-sovereign money of the likes of Diem or whether it's sovereign money in the form of a digital dollar.

This research aims to evaluate the suitability of cryptocurrency as money from the Islamic perspective. Money, in the Islamic perspective, has specific characteristics and requirements, such as stability and is based on assets. Cryptocurrency may not fulfil this as it has queries as money from the Islamic perspective. The research method applied data of 23 cryptocurrency prices and related information. The result shows that cryptocurrency is hugely volatile and has limits to being called 'money,' as it is limited and used for speculation, which is prohibited in Islam. The research implies that Muslims would be reluctant to use cryptocurrency as money, as a currency of transaction. This reason raise an expectation that the cryptocurrency will not develop rapidly in Muslim countries.

"The fungibility of money is a characteristic which contributes to the quality of money. Fungibleness is itself related to the technical ability to associate a unit of currency with its past instances of exchange. This history is analogous to the identity of money. The identity of an individual unit of exchange is increasingly important as cash becomes less common, and banks require more information about the provenance of money. Private currencies, including Bitcoin and Libra, are themselves subject to tracking. The prior financial-and potentially political-activities of a user determine the fungibility of the currency they hold. Different money technologies provide varied levels of privacy, while cryptocurrencies offer users the potential to choose the level of information they share."

With 21% of adults in the region having a mobile money account, Sub-Saharan Africa is the global leader in the use of mobile money. This correlates with GSMA supply-side data on mobile money, which shows that Sub-Saharan Africa plays host to almost half of all mobile money registered accounts i.e. 396 million - of which 37% are active on a 90-day basis.

In our last post, we explored mobile money as the driving force for financial inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa, and the increasing digitisation of use cases across different sectors - many of which were not imagined in the early days of mobile money. This post focuses on the future of mobile money. Looking ahead, we see three key areas of future growth in mobile money across Sub-Saharan Africa.

Mobile money isn't the one easy fix to global poverty - there's no such thing - but it is an extraordinarily simple tool that works remarkably well. And yet, a decade after it first took off, it remains in many places underutilized. The evidence base for it is significantly stronger than the evidence base for popular financial access interventions like microloans. And there's a great deal the global development community could do to make it more possible in the countries where it hasn't taken off, from helping governments develop fair and limited regulation and taxation frameworks to directly dispersing money to people through mobile money systems. That sort of work isn't flashy, but it lays the groundwork for a world where everyone can save, send, and spend money from their phones - and that, the evidence suggests, can make a really big difference.

Mobile money remains the cheapest method of sending international remittances; the average cost of sending $200 using mobile money is well below the UN's SDG 10.c target. With over a billion registered mobile money accounts globally and close to $2 billion in daily transactions, the mobile money industry will continue to play its vital role in increasing digitisation and building resilience of those for whom remittances are a crucial financial lifeline during a crisis and enabling migrants and their families to attain their own Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This article argues that it is important to distinguish between programmable money and programmable payments because they have different use cases. The example of the e-car is a good use case for a programmable payment. However, the programmability of money is not necessary in this case. Instead, programmable money can be used, for instance, to implement targeted aid payments during crises such as COVID-19. By giving the money paid out to citizens an inherent logic, the government could ensure that the subsidies are spent in a timely fashion and only for predefined things such as food, medicine, or clothes.

A new INTERPOL report has found the billion dollar mobile money industry in Africa is being exploited by organized crime groups - a trend only set to increase as the service is rolled out across the continent. The report presents an overview of the criminal exploitation of mobile money services, including fraud, money laundering, extortion, human trafficking and people smuggling, the illegal wildlife trade and terrorism. A lack of robust identity checks to verify users combined with a need for greater law enforcement resources and training on mobile money-enabled crimes have created a financial system distinctly vulnerable to criminal infiltration.

"My overview of the history of monetary transformations suggests that technological change in money is inevitable, driven by the financial incentives of a market economy. Government has always had a key role in the provision of currency (outside money), which is a public good. It has also regulated inside money provided by the commercial banking system. This held for fiduciary money and will likely hold for digital money."

The IMF published a paper on the evolving prudential frameworks for nonbank issuers of electronic money (e-money). Some jurisdictions take a relatively light-touch approach to regulating e-money issuers (EMIs). Others have sought to apply more stringent requirements to protect e-money users, as the sector has grown in importance. The paper ends with recommendations for policymakers, especially in those emerging market economies and developing countries wherein EMIs have reached a scale at which they could have a significant economic impact if they were to fail.

The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSMA) is exploring of low mobile money activity rates. Despite high sign-up rates, only 26% of accounts are active on a monthly basis, while 38% are active on a 90-day basis. Findings from the annual GSMA Consumer Survey run in ten countries in 2021 shed light on perceived reasons for low activity. The main barriers were found to be a preference for cash, lacking sufficient funds for mobile money to be useful and not needing mobile money due to alternative electronic financial services. Other important barriers include users having a limited ability in using a phone, and mobile money transaction costs being too high.

Mobile money has become highly prevalent in so-called under- or unbanked areas like the majority of Africa. It enables users to pay for electrical bills and day-to-day shopping with their mobile phone, without the need to connect it to a bank account. The sub-Saharan section of the African continent heavily relies on mobile money, with 548 million registered accounts across 157 providers. North Africa, Europa and Central Asia, only have a combined seven million active mobile money accounts and a transaction value of roughly $15 billion. In 2020, Africans exchanged $490 billion using mobile money providers alone.