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
Asia is leading the way in the use and development of digital currencies and remains the world’s largest digital payments market, with China alone accounting for more than half of the total transaction value worldwide, according to a new research paper published by Singapore’s DBS Bank... More
Sweden’s central bank The Riksbank has begun testing a digital currency designed to enable consumers to store an electronic version of the Swedish krona in a digital wallet and make payments, deposits and withdrawals using a mobile app... More
Diamond jewellery maker Kobelli is to use a blockchain-based NFC platform to provide its customers with a way to securely verify the authenticity of their purchases... More
OCBC Bank, HSBC, MUFG, IMDA complete proof-of-concept KYC blockchain — Digital News Asia — “The KYC [Know Your Customer] blockchain – running on a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) platform which enables structured information to be recorded, accessed and shared across a distributed network using advanced cryptography – allows banks to collect, validate and share customer information – with the customer’s consent – accurately, efficiently and in a secured manner.”
Bundesbank sees benefits in blockchain technology — Deutsche Bundesbank — “The Bundesbank’s experts see little prospect of DLT [distributed ledger technology] being put to widespread use in the field of individual and retail payments given the current state of the art… They see more potential for DLT in payments beyond the European currency area… There is currently no realistic prospect of central bank-issued digital currency being rolled out in the foreseeable future.”
Public-private sector digital currency experiment releases results of phase II — Payments Canada — “The Bank of Canada, along with Payments Canada, R3 and seven commercial banks, today disclosed the results of phase II of Project Jasper, an experimental wholesale interbank payment system, using digital ledger technology (DLT)… The results show that, despite progress made, underpinning an entire wholesale payments system with DLT still faces many hurdles.”