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The IMF published a paper on India's foundational digital public infrastructure (DPI), consisting of unique digital identification, payments system and data exchange layers, It has been harnessed to foster innovation and competition, expand markets, close gaps in financial inclusion, boost government revenue collection and improve public expenditure efficiency. In the paper's view, India's journey in developing a world-class DPI highlights powerful lessons for other countries embarking on their own digital transformation, in particular a design approach that focuses on shared building blocks and supporting innovation across the ecosystem.

"High-value payment systems (HVPS) are typically liquidity-intensive as the payment requests are indivisible and settled on a gross basis. Finding the right order in which payments should be processed to maximize the liquidity efficiency of these systems is an NP-hard combinatorial optimization problem, which quantum algorithms may be able to tackle at meaningful scales. We developed an algorithm and ran it on a hybrid quantum annealing solver to find an ordering of payments that reduced the amount of system liquidity necessary without substantially increasing payment delays. Despite the limitations in size and speed of today's quantum computers, our algorithm provided quantifiable efficiency improvements when applied to the Canadian HVPS using a 30-day sample of transaction data. By reordering each batch of 70 payments as they entered the queue, we achieved an average of C$240 million in daily liquidity savings, with a settlement delay of approximately 90 seconds. For a few days in the sample, the liquidity savings exceeded C$1 billion. This algorithm could be incorporated as a centralized preprocessor into existing HVPS without entailing a fundamental change to their risk management models."

Banca D'Italia published a paper on financial technology providers and their crucial role in enabling firms - even small ones - to become more efficient and keep pace with innovation. It draws attention to how interdependencies between such providers and financial entities may pose new systemic risks, deserving the attention of financial regulators and overseers. Although it doesn't cover central bank digital currency (CBDC) explicitly, all of the points it makes seem relevant to the role such technology providers play in CBDC launches and pilots.

According to National Bank of Cambodia Governor Chea Serey, cross-border QR code payments made through Cambodia's Bakong digital payment system are set to boost the use of the nation's riel currency. Bakong can already be used for QR code-based payments between Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam, and those involving China's UnionPay. These cross-border payments can only be carried out in riel, so Cambodian citizens need to have a riel Bakong account to make payments in Thailand, for example, while Thai tourists can only make QR code transactions in Cambodia if the place where they are shopping accepts riel. The central bank plans to enable cross-border payments using Bakong with India as early as June and is also working with Japan.