Chinese e-commerce platform Meituan is to enable customers of its bicycle hire service to pay for their rides with the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) while offline using an NFC-enabled digital yuan hard wallet... More
A “growing number” of Europeans would support the creation of national digital currencies with the specific aim of asserting “some monetary independence” from the European Union, according to a survey commissioned by Euronews... More
Eesti Pank, the central bank of Estonia, has tested a blockchain-powered technical solution for the use of a digital euro central bank digital currency (CBDC) that it says is capable of handling more than 300,000 simultaneous payments a second and enables payees to receive a payment in less than two seconds... More
Nearly 21m (20.87m) personal and 3.51m corporate digital yuan wallets have so far been issued during China’s ongoing trials of its central bank digital currency (CBDC), the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has revealed... More
The European Central Bank (ECB) has officially launched its digital euro project with a two-year investigation into key issues regarding the design, distribution and use of a central bank digital currency (CBDC)... More
China could be ready to officially launch the digital yuan as a fully operational central bank digital currency (CBDC) after the Beijing Winter Olympics in early 2022, according to reports in the Chinese media... More
Passengers on 24 subway lines and four suburban rail services in the Chinese capital of Beijing can now use the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) to make contactless payments for their fares from a digital yuan mobile wallet issued by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China... More
Customers of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) and the Agricultural Bank of China can now exchange cash for digital yuan and vice versa at more than 3,000 ATMs across Beijing, China, according to a report by the Xinhua news agency... More
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) is launching “a comprehensive study” that will explore the use cases, benefits and risks of developing a digital Hong Kong dollar as a central bank digital currency (CBDC)... More
Sweden’s central bank The Riksbank is to begin testing its e-krona central bank digital currency (CBDC) with external partners to assess how a digital krona would operate within a real world banking and payments infrastructure... More
Collectors and investors purchasing a limited edition “crypto stamp” issued by Austrian Post will soon be able to authenticate their purchase by scanning an NFC chip embedded in the packaging of the physical version of the postage stamp with their smartphone... More
Ensuring that central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) are interoperable and integrated with existing payment infrastructures are among the key requirements for their successful implementation in cross border transactions, according to a joint paper published by Swift and Accenture... More
The National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan has published a public consultation document as part of its plans to develop and pilot a central bank digital currency (CBDC)... More
Consumers in the Bahamas will be able to use mobile wallets integrated with the country’s Sand Dollar “like an ATM” and transfer the central bank digital currency to their wallet directly from their bank account, the governor of the Central Bank of The Bahamas, John Rolle, has said... More
More than nine in 10 consumers (93%) will consider using digital payment methods including contactless, QR code and biometric payments as well as cryptocurrency transactions in the next year, according to a Mastercard survey... More
Mastercard is seeking a role in the development of China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) by supporting the use of the digital yuan for cross-border transactions and its conversion to and from foreign currencies, according to South China Morning Post (SCMP)... More
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) have unveiled prototype hardware devices that support the use of the digital yuan central bank digital currency (CBDC) across a range of different use cases... More
Projects to develop a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) for use by consumers and businesses are “more advanced” and “particularly strong” in emerging economies, according to analysis by global consultancy firm PwC... More
The UK Treasury and the Bank of England have established a central bank digital currency (CBDC) taskforce to coordinate research into the benefits, risks and practicalities of introducing a digital pound... More
More than two-fifths (43%) of Europeans rank privacy as the most important feature of a digital euro central bank digital currency (CBDC), with 18% citing security, 11% the ability to pay across the eurozone, 9% the lack of additional costs and 8% offline usability, according to a European Central Bank (ECB) survey... More
