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...

At Fnality, we are often asked questions along the lines of 'How would new forms of digital money alter your value proposition?’ or 'Where does Fnality 'fit' in a future world with CBDC?'

Improving cross-border payments has become a top agenda item of global policy makers. The G20 has made “enhancing cross-border payments” a priority in 2019, and it continues to be a priority for 2021 under the Italian G20 presidency. The Financial Stability Board (FSB) has launched an extensive roadmap last year, as well: “Faster, cheaper, more transparent and more inclusive cross-border payment services, including remittances, while maintaining their safety and security, would have widespread benefits for citizens and economies worldwide”. In fact, this October the FSB published measurable targets for addressing four key challenges in cross-border payments: cost, speed, access and...

As part of our Fnality Global Payments Insights series, Fnality recently published a paper – Fnality Global Payments & Wholesale CBDC – that explores the proliferation and development of CBDC projects. It examines the pressing issues in wholesale financial markets that have prompted such innovation, and how, in the current absence of viable wholesale CBDC or DLT-based RTGS renewal programmes, Fnality Global Payments can offer novel solutions to the problems these arrangements seek to solve.