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To help government units and healthcare organizations discover non-traditional suppliers who have changed course to address the shortage of supplies needed for COVID-19 relief efforts, IBM unveiled a blockchain-based network called IBM Rapid Supplier Connect.

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).

The National Bank of Rwanda has reinstated charges on all cashless transactions after the three months period with zero charges introduced in March this year, as part of the measures to encourage digital transactions due to the New Coronavirus outbreak, elapsed.

The University of Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance is partnering with the World Bank Group and the World Economic Forum to launch a Global Covid-19 FinTech Market Rapid Assessment Survey. The empirical data collected will be used to understand Covid-19's impact on the FinTech markets, how the global FinTech industry has responded and some of the immediate regulatory and policy implications.

U.K.-based SafeCharge launched a new solution offering small businesses alternative ways to accept digital payments in response to the COVID-19 crisis. SafeCharge Local, supported by Visa, enables consumers to make payments online and over the phone whilst also providing a better consumer experience in store by reducing queues and limiting the need for close customer contact at the point of sale. At the heart of SafeCharge Local is a digital payment solution called Paylink, which enables businesses to receive payments through the use of QR codes and secure payment links without the need for a physical point of sale terminal or an online shop.

UK-based Qardus has launched a Shariah-compliant P2P SME lending platform, offering unsecured loans of up to £100,000 in the form of a "murabahah," which is a commodity and a type of Islamic financing structure through which buyers and sellers both agree to the cost and mark-up of a particular asset. Qardus charges borrowers a 2 to 5% fee, and borrowers are required to have been operating a business for three years or more, and they must have a turnover or assets worth £100,000. Also, borrowers must operate in "recession-proof" industries including food and beverages, food manufacturing and pharmaceuticals.

The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSMA) released a COVID-19 response tracker that monitors mobile money-specific regulatory policy, government and provider interventions globally, collated using both primary and secondary sources and updated weekly. The tracker is intended to support mobile money providers and regulators with a mobile money-specific policy response database and learnings from other markets, in order to effectively tailor policy responses for their market. The tracker collates data from 32 countries, spread across Sub-Saharan Africa (17), East Asia & Pacific (7), South Asia (4), Middle East & North Africa (3), and Latin America & Caribbean (1). An interim analysis of the data collated in the tracker showed preferred policy response instrument, regional variations, and the validity period of these instruments.

Americans are using less cash but they are holding more, which presents a challenge for the Federal Reserve and other central banks around the world. They have to maintain a vast network of secure printers and depots to deliver cash to where it is needed. As people use less cash, each piece of this infrastructure becomes more expensive to operate. But central banks will not be able to wind it down completely, for two reasons. First, the poor are more likely to still use cash, exacerbating the "digital divide". And second, in a crisis, everyone wants a fistful of dollars.

Through CBDC, governments could send direct payments much more rapidly than through checks or tax refunds and could provide geographically and temporally targeted relief. The CBDC supporting infrastructure would also enable fund receivers to make payments and transfers seamlessly to other CBDC holders and/or non-CBDC holders, anywhere and anytime across the economy. CBDC could reinforce the resilience of a country's retail payment services, especially in those cases where private sector infrastructures are disrupted, due to technical problems, personnel unavailability, or inability of service providers to operate. The 'programmability' of CBDC could be used to monitor and control how, when, and where recipients utilise the funds. Finally, CBDC could enable people to substitute for cash and in-person payment methods when social distancing is required, or if the use of cash plummets as people worry about germs. Still, CBDC projects will take time to materialise, and meanwhile existing infrastructures could be improved to facilitate transfers and payments.

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.

Billions of pounds are tied up in the U.K.'s peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms, which put savers looking for a better return on their cash in touch with individuals or small businesses looking for a loan. This year, when the Covid-19 outbreak started escalating, many of the P2P sites experienced a surge in the numbers of customers wanting to liquidate their investments and withdraw their cash, and such customers are facing long waits. For example, pre-crisis, Ratesetter generally took only one day to return cash to investors seeking their money back, but it is currently still processing customer withdrawal requests that were made as far back as mid-March, when withdrawal requests peaked.

According to the World Economic Forum (WEF) low-maturity FinTechs need a common cybersecurity framework and assessment process, tiered according to cybersecurity maturity levels and provide guidance for companies on when they need to adopt and enhance cybersecurity controls as they grow. The solution should start with baseline requirements for controls and assessment, but also provide increasingly complex controls as organizations develop and as their cybersecurity risk management requirements mature. Controls require regular adaptation as technology, threats and business models change. They are granular, specific to the assets they are meant to protect, and may have a limited shelf life. The WEF recommends that these controls should be defined by financial services providers, where the expertise and funding can be deployed at speed, in consultation with cybersecurity experts from other sectors, governmental agencies and relevant civil-society organizations.

Authorities around the world have moved to encourage the use of digital payments in response to Covid-19. Some of these measures facilitate the use of digital payments during lockdown, while others provide longer-term support for fintech players and financial innovation more broadly. For emerging market and developing economies, the measures respond to the unexpected opportunity to further promote financial inclusion objectives through the use of technology. To increase their effect, these moves should include measures to combat financial crime and protect consumers.

Stimulus vouchers aimed to boost Taiwan's economy amid fallout from COVID-19 became available in July. Residents were able to select from four types of vouchers - hard copies, credit card payments, contactless smartcards, or mobile payments. The vouchers must be spent by December 31, 2020. Those favoring hard copies can "purchase" vouchers with a total value of NT$3,000 for NT$1,000. Individuals who prefer one of the three digital forms of vouchers will earn NT$2,000 back by spending NT$3,000. https://3000.gov.tw/EN/

Fintech providers have experienced a massive uptick in demand as the coronavirus sparks unprecedented levels of growth in the eCommerce sector, according to CBInsights. It estimates that eCommerce could represent 27% of U.S. retail sales in 2020, two-thirds higher than in 2019. One success story mentioned in the report is that of Shopify, which generated revenue of $714.3m in the second quarter of 2020, 97% higher than the same period in 2019. Over this three-month period, the number of new stores on Shopify rose by 71% as brick-and-mortar retailers aimed to speedily build an online presence. Interestingly, Shopify is one of the few eCommerce platforms that allows merchants to receive crypto payments.

The Reserve Bank of Australia is conducting a review of retail payments regulation and will consider reducing the cost of electronic payments for both merchants and consumers given the current COVID-19 related reluctance to use cash. ATM withdrawals were down by 30% from March to April and down by more than 40% from a year earlier. However merchants have been hit by higher charges when debut card payments are automatically routed through certain international payment schemes. https://www.rba.gov.au/speeches/2020/sp-ag-2020-06-03.html

In Rwanda the value of funds transferred via mobile money grew by 450% between January and April data from Rwanda Utilities Regulation Authority shows. The central bank and local telcos temporarily removed charges on transfers between bank accounts and mobile wallets, mobile money transfers, and merchant fees on payments for all contactless transactions to reduce chances of COVID-19 transmission.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) launched a S$1.75 million MAS Global FinTech Innovation Challenge to seek innovative solutions that can help financial institutions respond to COVID-19 and climate change challenges. It will be hosted entirely on the API Exchange (APIX), a cloud-based innovation platform, which will allow these solutions to be curated, contextualised, and validated.

PayPal has launched payment by QR codes in the UK and 27 other markets around the world, providing a touch-free way for businesses to receive payments and for consumers to make purchases during Covid-19.

The spread of COVID-19 and related government lockdowns have led to a 24% to 32% increase in the relative rate of daily downloads of finance mobile applications in the 74 countries surveyed. Preliminary analysis suggests that market size and demographics, rather than level of economic development and ex-ante adoption rates, drive differential trends across countries.