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Euroclear has invested in Fnality, the blockchain payments consortium formerly known as the Utility Settlement Coin (USC) and owned by 16 major financial institutions. Euroclear operates Central Securities Depositories (CSDs) across Europe, including Belgium, Finland, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. In October, Fnality plans to launch its first payment currency with pounds sterling deposited at the Bank of England. That makes it a so-called wholesale synthetic CBDC where the purpose is for institutions to use it for settlement, especially for blockchain-based transactions.

"We analyze the new UFR proposal in more detail in this article. Whilst the introduction of the new method would currently lead to lower funding ratios, it should also make it easier for pension funds to stabilize their UFR funding and interest rate hedging ratios over time."

De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) published a paper about the payment behavior and preferences of Dutch consumers who encounter difficulties navigating this digital world, particularly individuals within groups at risk.  The research focused on people with low digital literacy, disabilities or financial difficulties. Using rich payment diary data it revealed that cash is an important means of payment to many. 7% said they always use cash at points of sale and 28% indicate they cannot do without cash. Cash is especially important for people with low digital literacy, people who are blind or visually impaired, people with limited or no hand function, people with a mild intellectual disability and people who find it difficult to make ends meet on their income.

"Crypto-assets have shown a remarkable evolution over the past two years that highlights their relevance for society as a whole. There have been large inflows and outflows in these markets. There have been polarised debates between crypto believers and sceptics. There have been warnings by authorities that investors could lose their money. In spite of those warnings, crypto-assets continued to exert a strong attraction to a substantial proportion of the population; approximately 14% of the Dutch population holds them. This raises questions: what makes crypto-assets so attractive? What opportunities and risks do they pose for society? And how can policymakers ensure that societal risks will be mitigated while leaving room for innovation?"

"In 2022, Dutch people used their mobile phone or wearable device for contactless payment at points of sale as often as they paid in cash. The share of these new means of payment rose to 21%, while the use of banknotes and coins stabilised at 20% of total payments. Including the contactless variants, debit payments thus stabilised at 80% of all purchases. Young people, the over-65s and people who find it difficult to make ends meet still tend to prefer cash. This has been revealed by a joint study conducted by the Dutch Payments Association (Betaalvereniging Nederland) and De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB)."

De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) published a paper that studies the transition from a steady-state without central bank digital currency (CBDC) to one in which the home country issues a CBDC using a two-country dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model with financial frictions. In the new steady state, the availability of CBDC, which is liquid and storage-cost-free, improves welfare. During the transition, however, demand for CBDC and money overshoot, thus crowding out bank deposits and leading to initial declines in investment, consumption, and output. However, these negative effects can be reduced with binding caps, with an optimal level of around 40% of the CBDC demand in the steady state. A two-tiered remuneration scheme is also effective in smoothing the transition if the penalty interest rate is extremely high (e.g., a negative 300% interest rate on holdings above 50% steady-state demand).