Since the first discussions over a global stablecoin started in 2019, international standard-setting bodies have been developing and refining recommendations for the regulation, supervision and oversight of global stablecoin arrangements (FSB 2020 and FSB 2022). In the first blog of this series, we looked at the issuance and redemption of stablecoins, but now we want to focus on the risks and benefits from the opportunity to make payments with stablecoins, and how this should be regulated.

In 2019, when a Facebook-led consortium announced its plans to launch the global stablecoin ‘Libra’, many – including politicians and high-level representatives of the G7 - thought that a new international financial system, arguably outside of the realm of regulators was about to emerge. This conclusion was mainly rooted in a mindset that the blockchain technology underpinning stablecoins would compromise the reach and effectiveness of regulators. In hindsight, such fears have turned out to be unfounded. Even though the Libra project has been wound down, the international standard-setting bodies under the auspices of the Financial Stability Board (FSB) have been developing and refining...

Fnality and Finteum have executed the first cross-chain FX settlement transaction test across the two platforms, reducing cross-currency settlement to T+0 

We are delighted to welcome Nomura as a new shareholder, supporting our vision for a regulation-first, real-time, wholesale payments system. 

Becoming a father often becomes a conflict between your work responsibilities and family needs, however at Fnality the situation turned out to be different.

In our two previous blog posts on stablecoins and CBDCs, we have discussed why the speed of market acceptance of stablecoins has constituted a financial stability concern for oversight authorities, pushing them to speed up their discussion around building appropriate legal frameworks to regulate new payment solutions.

We have also explored the acceleration of CBDC discussions in response to the perceived threat to existing currencies that central bankers see in stablecoins.

In the third and final blog post of this series, we highlight that several traditional market players have demonstrated their intention to explore and enter the stablecoin/DeFi space as a competitive response.

The amount...

In our most recent blog post, we explored why the speed of market acceptance of stablecoins has constituted a financial stability concern for oversight authorities, one that has sped up their thinking around the need for a legal framework to regulate novel payment solutions.

Central bankers have also begun to explore alternatives to stablecoins, one particularly notable example being Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC); a digital form of a country’s fiat currency, issued and regulated by the national central bank.

The financial authorities of around 90 countries worldwide - representing 90% of global GDP - are now exploring CBDC issuance and investigating the effect they may have on their...

As anticipated by our CEO, Rhom Ram, in his 2021 September blog post 'Are Stablecoins a threat to Capital Markets Incumbents?', the speed of market acceptance of stablecoins has been remarkably quick and therefore constitutes a financial stability concern for regulators.

As legislative frameworks are currently under construction, stablecoin arrangements - particularly because they depend on the receipt of fiat currency to issue corresponding digital tokens in exchange - look soon to be fully treated like depositary institutions.

Unlike a stablecoin, each Fnality Payment System doesn’t create or issue novel payment instruments, but is instead designed to be the 'system operator' of assets...

UK FinTechs Fnality, Nivaura and Adhara collaborate with NatWest and Santander to execute first cross-chain pilot debt transaction on public Ethereum and Fnality Payment System