Norway’s central bank Norges Bank is to test “various technical solutions for a central bank digital currency (CBDC) over the next two years”, the bank’s CBDC working group has announced in its third project report... More
Digital currency
Retail CBDC projects ‘particularly strong’ in emerging economies, PwC index shows
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
UK Treasury and Bank of England launch CBDC taskforce to explore digital currency options
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
ECB survey reveals Europeans expect digital euro to be private, secure and easy to use
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
Russia to create digital ruble prototype by December
The Central Bank of Russia will build a prototype central bank digital currency (CBDC) by December 2021 using a two-tier structural model unveiled by bank representatives at a press conference... More
East Caribbean Central Bank launches digital currency
Residents of Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Saint Lucia and St Kitts and Nevis can now pay for goods and services and make peer-to-peer money transfers from their smartphones using the East Caribbean Central Bank’s DCash central bank digital currency (CBDC)... More
Chinese banks roll out digital yuan wallets
Customers of all six state-owned Chinese banks can now apply for test versions of the banks’ digital yuan wallets as the country rolls out the next phase of its central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot programme in the city of Changsha... More
Visa settles first transaction in digital currency
Visa has become the first major payments network to settle a transaction with an issuing or acquiring partner by exchanging funds in digital currency rather than in traditional fiat currency... More
WSJ video shows China’s digital yuan in action in stores
The Wall Street Journal has posted a video report showing Chinese consumers in the city of Chengdu using the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) to make in-store NFC and QR code payments from a digital yuan wallet on their mobile phone... More
Jamaica to launch central bank digital currency in 2022
Jamaica is to pilot a central bank digital currency (CBDC) over the course of this year and begin rolling it out in 2022, the country’s minister of finance Nigel Clarke has revealed during a budget speech... More
Chinese banks issue digital yuan wallets to Shanghai customers
Some 8,500 consumers in the Chinese city of Shanghai have been given e-wallets containing digital yuan as part of the country’s ongoing pilot scheme for its central bank digital currency (CBDC)... More
Tencent and Ant to integrate digital yuan wallets into mobile banking apps
Tencent-backed WeBank and Ant-backed MyBank are conducting “preliminary work under the guidance of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC)” in order to integrate the digital yuan wallet into their payment and banking services, according to a China Securities report... More
Russian carriers seek digital ruble mobile wallet role
Russian mobile network operators Beeline and MegaFon are looking to develop digital wallets for smartphones and other mobile devices that will support the central bank digital currency (CBDC) which is being developed by The Central Bank of Russia (CBR)... More
Mastercard and Island Pay launch CBDC-linked prepaid card in the Bahamas
Citizens of the Bahamas can now pay for goods and services using a prepaid card that supports the country’s Sand Dollar central bank digital currency (CBDC)... More
Postal Savings Bank of China trials biometric cards for digital currency payments
Chinese consumers taking part in the large-scale testing of the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) in Beijing over the Chinese New Year period are trialling a biometric ‘hard wallet’ card developed by the Postal Savings Bank of China... More
Amazon to build digital currency payments solution?
Amazon is recruiting a tech team that will be tasked with building “innovative payment products for customers in emerging markets” that will enable “customers to convert their cash into digital currency” to purchase “goods and/or services like Prime Video”, a job advertisement posted by the company reveals... More
China’s central bank expands digital yuan pilot to Beijing
The People’s Bank of China has launched the first large-scale giveaway of the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) to be held in Beijing and has distributed 10m digital yuan (US$1.55m) to 50,000 participants in a ‘red envelope’ lottery... More
Survey: Eight in ten central banks are now actively engaged in digital currency projects
More than four-fifths of the world’s central banks (86%) are engaged in “some form of work” on a central bank digital currency (CBDC), up from “about one third” in 2019, according to a Bank for International Settlements (BIS) survey... More
Chinese banks launch mobile wallets that let customers transact in digital yuan
At least eight major banks, including Hong Kong-based China CITIC Bank, have now introduced or are in the process of introducing digital wallets that support China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), according to local media reports... More
BIS to build proof of concept platform for cross-border CBDC payments
The Bank of International Settlements (BIS) is to develop a proof of concept platform to explore the use of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) for cross-border payments and has identified CBDCs as one of six “thematic priorities” for the year... More