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The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the central banks of Israel, Norway and Sweden are launching Project Icebreaker, a joint exploration of how central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) can be used for international retail and remittance payments. using a hub-and-spoke model. The project will run through the end of the year, with a final report expected in the first quarter of 2023.

"The Bank of Korea completed the second phase of its retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) simulations in late June. While it was happy with some aspects of its digital won simulations, such as using CBDC for offline payments and cross border remittances, it found the overall performance of the Ethereum-based blockchain insufficient, including the scaling solutions and privacy technology that was tested. One of its tests simulated peak demand by sustaining 4,200 transactions per second (TPS) for 30 minutes. At that activity level, users sometimes had to wait up to a minute for a response (latency)."

"Strike, the global money app for Bitcoin and fast, secure payments, yesterday announced the expansion of "Send Globally" to Mexico. With this expansion, it will bring its payment service to the largest remittance market in the US."

"This IMF paper reflects on the first year of the eNaira-the first CBDC in Africa. Despite the laudable undisrupted operation for the first full year, the CBDC project has not yet moved beyond the initial wave of limited adoption. Network effects suggest the initial low adoption spell will require a coordinated policy drive to break it. The eNaira's potential in financial inclusion requires a strategy to set the right relationship with mobile money, given the former's potential to either complement or substitute the latter. Cost savings from integrating CBDC-as a bridge vehicle-in the remittance process may also be substantial."

Many industry participants have commented on how the gap in marketcap between Tether and its largest competitors has narrowed. However, the difference between USD₮'s 24hr trading volume and its competitors tells a clearer and more important story. For example, rather than catering to the traditional banking industry, Tether is focused on being the most used currency for peer-to-peer exchanges, remittances, a tool of freedom and inflation hedge for developing countries. This is why, while Tether's marketcap has decreased due to the billions of cash redemptions that it's effortlessly facilitated over the past several weeks, Tether's 24hr trading volume remains roughly 10x that of its closest competitor. This points to the utility of Tether in daily trading and is the true measure of adoption. The sheer scale of the integration of USD₮ into the financial plumbing of the crypto industry is an order of magnitude greater than its nearest competitor.

The Bank of Korea (BOK) reportedly wants to commence real-world testing for its prototype central bank digital currency (CBDC) with 10 domestic commercial banks in the second half of the year. Until now, the BOK CBDC work has been limited to proof-of-concept experiments, starting with basic functions such as minting, issuance, distribution, and redemption from August to December last year, and payment, digital asset transactions, and cross-border remittances from January to June this year. Now the central bank wants to know whether the prototype is compatible with various banks' IT platforms and wants to investigate possible interoperability-related issues

The Financial Stability Board (FSB) published its inaugural annual report on key performance indicators (KPIs) for meeting the targets for cross-border payments and a consolidated report on progress under the roadmap. They provide a quantitative and qualitative overview about the challenges facing cross-border payments, the progress being made on the G20's priority actions, and public and private sector projects underway globally to enhance cross-border payments. The data confirms that user experiences differ substantially across regions. For example, payments involving some, typically lower income, regions tend to be among the furthest from the cost and speed targets across market segments. Furthermore, whereas in the retail segment, foreign exchange (FX) costs seem to be the largest component of total costs, the degree to which this is true differs across regions and use-cases; by contrast, in the remittances segment, other fees tend to be larger than FX costs.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) have jointly launched a real-time payment systems linkage between Singapore's PayNow and Malaysia's DuitNow. The initiative follows the QR payment linkage announced in March 2023 which enabled cross-border QR payments to merchants. The PayNow-DuitNow linkage enables instant, secure and cost-effective P2P fund transfers and remittances between the two countries using the recipient's mobile phone number or virtual payments address. This real-time payment systems linkage is also the first to include the participation of non-bank financial institutions from both countries.

The Central Bank of Solomon Islands (CBSI) started a retail CBDC ("Bokolo Cash") proof-of-concept (PoC) on November 1, 2023. The CBSI has been testing the Soramitsu-provided system for domestic and foreign payments, including simulated international remittances. Within the PoC, users will be able to seamlessly scan a QR code with their Bokolo Cash wallet to send instant cash payments to selected merchants or make peer-to-peer transfers.

The IMF published a paper that explores survey data for Uganda to compare mobile money users and non-users across a range of indicators that capture individuals' perceptions about cash, and the extent to which they remit, save, and borrow money. It finds that mobile money users, compared to non-users, are more likely to perceive cash as risky and less likely to prefer carrying large amounts of cash. It also confirms that mobile money users are more likely to receive and send remittances, save, and borrow. They also save and borrow larger amounts. This suggests that the rapid expansion of fintech in Africa is likely to reduce the demand for and usage of cash.

Silvergate Bank confirmed that it's purchasing Diem's development, deployment and operations tools, as well as tools "for running a blockchain-based payment network" for remittances and other applications. The Diem Association, the stablecoin project from Meta Platforms, will "begin the process of winding down" both the group and its subsidiaries over the next few weeks. Silvergate Bank described Diem's work as running "in a pre-launch phase." Silvergate CEO Alan Lane said they hope to launch a stablecoin by the end of this year.

Silvergate Bank confirmed that it's purchasing Diem's development, deployment and operations tools, as well as tools "for running a blockchain-based payment network" for remittances and other applications. The Diem Association, the stablecoin project from Meta Platforms, will "begin the process of winding down" both the group and its subsidiaries over the next few weeks. Silvergate Bank described Diem's work as running "in a pre-launch phase."

MoneyGram launched its stablecoin-powered payment channel, giving users the ability to send USD Coin (USDC) payments worldwide that can be withdrawn as cash by recipients. The service is being rolled out across several key remittance markets, including Canada, the United States, Kenya and the Philippines. Global cash-out functionality will be available by the end of June. To encourage adoption, the USDC transfer service will carry zero fees for the first 12 months. The new transfer service was built on the Stellar (XLM) blockchain and allows Stellar wallet users to send USDC to recipients around the world.

A technical report on the Central Bank of Jordan's (CBJ's) retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) explorations briefly appeared on the IMF's web page.. It was taken down before I could download it, but AgenParl news service published the abstract: "The report analyzes the retail payments markets of Jordan to identify pain points that retail CBDC (rCBDC) could address. It finds that retail payment systems in Jordan are highly integrated, enabling customers to make interoperable transactions between banks and non-bank Payment Service Providers. The country's cross-border remittance market is competitive, but may benefit from the reduced transactions cost associated with rCBDC. Despite generally accessible and appropriate product offerings and an enabling environment, various barriers prevent customers from extensively using digital means of payment. Hence, rCBDC might create an opportunity to overcome these barriers, thus making a cross-border rCBDC worth consideration. However, the CBJ should rigorously evaluate benefits against risks and costs before forging ahead. Meanwhile, the CBJ should develop capacity to address technology, cybersecurity, financial integrity, and legal issues."

The Reserve Bank of India (India) and the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates (CBUAE) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to explore the interoperability between the central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) of the two central banks. The banks will jointly conduct proof-of-concept (PoC) and pilot(s) of bilateral CBDC bridges to facilitate cross-border CBDC transactions of remittances and trade. The MoU also provides for technical collaboration and knowledge sharing on matters related to Fintech and financial products and services. https://www.rbi.org.in/Scripts/BS_PressReleaseDisplay.aspx?prid=55372

The Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) published the 2022 edition of its Future of Payments report. It focuses particularly on the challenges of cross-border payments for emerging market countries, delving into the validity of cryptocurrencies and stablecoins as a means of escaping domestic inflation and sending cheap remittances. It also examines the value proposition of CBDC for emerging markets, as well as looking at some of the progress made by CBDC cross-border integration projects. Notably, while central banks think that interlinking CBDCs might be a promising avenue for enhancing cross-border payments, they are not pursuing CBDC in order to provide a solution to the cross-border payments problem. The consensus is that CBDCs must justify their existence with other merits , such as improving financial inclusion.

India's National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has extended access to the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) to non-resident Indians from 10 countries (Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and the United States). Indians living abroad comprise the world's largest overseas remittance-sending diaspora.  Other countries like Nepal, Bhutan, and Singapore, have already signed deals with NPCI to integrate their payment networks with UPI, enabling seamless cross-border payments. https://www.npci.org.in/PDF/npci/upi/circular/2023/UPI-OC-161-Extension-to-UPI-Circular-No-60-Crediting-Debiting-Non-Resident-accounts-in-UPI.pdf

"Circle's Gordon Liao recently sketched out a new distinction between 'payment stablecoins' and 'trading stablecoins,' and then places Circle's stablecoin, USD Coin, in the former category, while confining competitors Tether, Dai, and Binance USD to the trading bucket. For the time being, I think that a payments stablecoin is a fable. Everyone wants to be in that category, but an actual payments stablecoin, one who's main use-case is remittances and POS payments, doesn't exist. Stablecoins remain primarily used for trading, gambling, and speculation."

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 National Bank of Rwanda (NBR) launched a public consultation on the potential issuance of central bank digital currency (CBDC). A detailed feasibility study, launched in 2023, formed the basis of its approach, that identified four "sweet spots" for a Rwandan CBDC: (i) increase resilience against possible network outages, power failures and natural disasters, (ii) improve innovation and competition, (iii) contribute to achieving the cashless economy national initiative over time, and (iv)develop faster, cheaper, more transparent, and more inclusive crossborder remittances. The consultative paper recommends a cautious iterative approach with multiple proofs of concepts and pilots.