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Nepal's central bank has given approval to Nepal Clearing House to operate the national payment switch. The payment gateway will integrate multiple banks, digital payment vendors into one system enabling them to transfer funds. In the first phase, all non-card transactions that are done through mobile banking, e-banking, e-wallet or QR code will be routed through the switch. In the third phase, all domestic electronic transactions will be routed through the switch.

The country's entire banking community has switched to offering instant payments using the Clearing and Settlement Mechanism of the central bank. "After this successful switch, all interbank payments in Aruban florin initiated in Aruba can be instantly processed 24/7/365. The IP CSM is fully compliant with international standards and ISO20022."

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe directed all mobile money service providers to cross over to Zimswitch Technologies as their national payments switch by August 15. It remains to be seen whether Econet, which enjoys a lion's share of the mobile money market and is locked in endless tussles with the authorities, will abide by the directive or challenge it in court. https://www.rbz.co.zw/documents/press/July/00100_-Press-Statement---Zimswitch-Designation-as-National-Switch---9-7-2020-2.pdf

Fears over privacy are a massive obstacle to switching to CBDCs. The problem is only amplified by suspicions that central banks will, despite claims to the contrary, use the switch to CBDCs to abandon what is by far the most reliable and private form of money available to the public right now - cash. After all, we all have memories we would rather were forgotten.

Over the next ten years, the standards for communicating electronic payments instructions between financial institutions, will transition from the various proprietary messaging standards over to ISO 20022. The U.S. Fedwire will start transitioning to ISO 20022 over a three-year period beginning in 2022. The European Central Bank's large value system, Target2, will start its transition in November 2022. The UK will switch in April 2022 in conjunction with a new real-time gross settlement system. The SWIFT global messaging network intends to begin the switch to ISO 20022 near the end of 2022. ISO 20022 will become a global lingua franca for transferring value electronically.

Last week, Ethereum's blockchain has split in two from a bug in a previous version of the chain's main node software. The software, known as Geth, makes up roughly 75% of Ethereum nodes and as much as 73% of Geth nodes have yet to update to the new version to fix the bug. That meant that around 50% of Ethereum nodes were running a split-off chain with out-of-date and bugged software that could allow double-spends. However, it had little impact as most of the miners had already switched to updated versions of Ethereum software. It seems that it was mostly non-mining nodes that had yet to make the switch to the new version of the software.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates (CBUAE) have agreed to a framework to promote use of Indian rupee (INR) and UAE Dirham (AED) usage for cross-border transactions, and work towards interlinking their fast payment systems (FPSs), to cut transaction costs by eliminating dollar conversions. More specifically, they will link India's unified payments interface (UPI) with the UAE instant payment platform (IPP), and also link their respective card switches (RuPay switch and UAESWITCH).

"Economists at the Bank of Canada ran a model to assess the impact of introducing a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) on bank deposits. It's widely expected that a proportion of bank deposits will switch to a CBDC. The economists believe that most assessments neglect the fact that banks provide products that complement deposits, such as mortgages and credit cards. If you assume consumers don't care about the other products their bank offers, then 39% of deposits could be crowded out by CBDC. "

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub's mBridge multiple central bank digital currency (CBDC) cross-border payments project, has reportedly switched to a new blockchain consensus protocol. The project was first deployed on a customized network that borrowed aspects of popular blockchain networks such as Ethereum's smart contract language Solidity. It relied on HotStuff, a Byzantine fault-tolerant consensus protocol. Local Chinese media is reporting that mBridge has transitioned to the Dashing Protocol, developed by the People's Bank of China's (PBoC's) Digital Currency Research Institute. The PBOC is an mBridge project partner, along with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), Bank of Thailand, and the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates.

There needs to be a more seamless transition between fiat and digital assets, so that customers do not risk losses as they switch back and forth. One solution would be for central banks to issue a crypto fiat, which would support product manufacturing. It would also enable real-time peer-to-peer payments and potentially cross-border interbank clearing and settlement.

While the initial design calls for 100% reserves in developed country currencies and government debt, that's illusory, since Libra's controllers can change the investments at any time. Any country that allows inflation or issues dubious debt can find its currency and debt dropped from reserves. Moreover, a successful Libra would likely switch to a fractional reserve system, with only enough national currency reserves for liquidity purposes, and currency backed either by loans and other risky assets, or nothing at all.

There are a few variations of crypto debit cards available that you should be aware of. Some crypto debit cards hold your Bitcoin directly as BTC and convert it into fiat only at the time of transactions, while other cards convert it into equivalent fiat as soon as you deposit them. On the other hand, there are also cards that are simply linked to your fiat accounts where you can switch between crypto or fiat as much as you like.

Chinese importers in Russia are buying up to $30 million a day of tether from Moscow's OTC trading desks. They use the cryptocurrency to send large sums back to their home country, which has strict capital controls. Previously the merchants used bitcoin for this, but when the market crashed in 2018 they switched to tether. Despite longstanding questions about USDT's collateral, in this market "nobody actually cares if tether is backed or not," says one Moscow trader.

Consumer watchdog Which? reported that one in 10 free cashpoints across the UK have closed or switched to charging a fee for withdrawals. Poorer communities, which tend to rely more heavily on cash for payments, had been hit the hardest.

As science-fictiony as it sounds, quantum computing is a threat that needs to be taken seriously in the world of blockchains. It may not be the kill switch that everyone imagines because of media hype, but it certainly something that should be on the radar for anyone involved in the ecosystem.

Legislation designed to switch financial contracts referencing US dollar Libor to a replacement benchmark without exposing users to litigation could be challenged in the courts, legal experts say.

"Simplify your life with Cambodia's only all-in-one mobile payment and banking app. Bakong redefines mobile payment and banking by combining e-wallets, mobile payments, online banking and financial applications within one easy-to-use interface for any preferred bank account. Stop switching between apps todayand enjoy unrivalled simplicity, convenience and security with Bakong."

Shenzhen digital yuan trial participants interviewed by Bloomberg showed little interest in switching from AliPay or TenPay, some balking at the possibility a digital yuan might give authorities easier access to real-time data on their financial lives. Some merchants may also be wary of their transactions flowing directly into a government database to help police tax collection compliance. The People's Bank of China has tried to quell those concerns by making the digital yuan free to use for merchants and by pledging that most payments will remain anonymous.

"There's good reasons to consider switching to satoshi as the unit of account. Quoting in satoshi rather than bitcoin could help convince people who don't have a great deal of money that bitcoin can still be for them despite its high price. Sats can become the savings vehicle of choice for ordinary people who want a safer and higher-yielding place for their money than bank deposit accounts. "

Cybersecurity firm, NortonLifeLock, has launched a pilot of Norton Crypto, a tool allowing select Norton 360 users to "safely" mine Ethereum (ETH) through the product. Norton plans to open up the mining service to all of its nearly 13 million 360 customers in the coming months, in the future, to support mining of other "top" cryptos. Norton emphasized that its service allows users to mine without requiring them to switch off their antivirus software.