The president of Banco Central — Brazil’s central bank — has announced Brazilians could expect to see a central bank digital currency before 2023. According to a Sept. 2 report from news outlet Correio Braziliense, Brazil could be ready for a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in 2022. Roberto Campos Neto, the president of Banco Central, stated that the country’s central bank had already undertaken measures to modernize the Brazilian financial system which has made a CBDC the natural outcome. The president cited the country’s PIX instant payment system and open banking among those measures. The central bank plans to …

Sygnum, a major cryptocurrency bank in Switzerland, is preparing to finally introduce digital asset trading after receiving regulatory approval. On Sept. 1, Sygnum announced that it received regulatory approval from the Financial Market Supervisory Authority, allowing the company to expand its services to a digital asset trading facility. The new approval enables Sygnum to “cover the complete life-cycle of a security,” starting from services such as primary issuance, settlement and custody to secondary trading. As part of Sygnum’s new capabilities, users now have access to instant settlement via the Sygnum-issued stablecoin Digital Swiss franc (DCHF). In conjunction with the news …

With the COVID-19 crisis showing no signs of abating in the United States, central banks around the world have deployed financial airbags in the form of quantitative easing, and they plan to do a lot more. Modern Monetary Theory has taken center stage, and we are witnessing it in action. It’s a sight that will leave you awestruck: like witnessing the financial version of the first atomic explosion of Los Alamos and the Manhattan Project. What is going on with the world’s economy is unprecedented. We are entering completely new and uncharted territories, and all bets are off with respect …

Galaxus, the largest online retailer in Switzerland, could start accepting payments in a stablecoin issued by local cryptocurrency bank Sygnum. According to an Aug. 27 tweet by Sygnum, the companies have just completed an electronic commerce payment using Sygnum Bank’s stablecoin known as Digital Swiss Franc (DCHF). As officially announced, the e-commerce transaction was enabled by Denmark-based crypto payment processor Coinify. Launched in March 2020, Sygnum’s DCHF stablecoin is pegged one-to-one to with the Swiss franc, and intends to eliminate the need for card systems, reduce settlement costs and fraud, as well as provide instant transactions. As previously reported, Sygnum …

The Central bank of Brazil — or Banco Central do Brazil — is laying the groundwork for a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) with an official statement revealing it has already formed a dedicated group to study the crypto industry. According to the central bank, the team consists of 12 members in an intergovernmental group that will assess how the CBDC could fit with the national payments ecosystem and what its impact could be on the economy and the society. Previous reports detailed that Brazil spends around 90 billion reals ($16 billion) annually to guarantee a functional supply of paper …

Will Martino, the former lead engineer for JPMorgan's first blockchain Juno, shared insights into the project's acquisition by ConsenSys with Cointelegraph. He believes that while the technology was good for its time, it inherited fundamental flaws from Ethereum (ETH). Since leaving JPMorgan, he has gone on to found Kadena, a proof-of-work blockchain that employs sharding to achieve scalability. While details regarding ConsenSys' recent acquisition of Quorum are sparse, it was noted that while divesting Quorum, JPMorgan was making an investment in ConsenSys. Martino believes that the investment that the bank made was higher than the price tag of Quorum. He …

Sberbank, the largest state-owned bank in Russia, is working with a major domestic airline company to introduce a blockchain-based ticket sale system. Russia’s largest bank is reportedly collaborating with S7 Airlines on a new ticket sale platform that will enable corporate clients with instant settlement through smart contracts and tokens. According to an Aug. 26 report by local newspaper Kommersant, the new system is planned to roll out in September 2020. This would be the first time virtual tokens are used for payment and settlement in Russia, the report notes. As reported, the new system is only targeting corporate clients …

The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) announced that the test run of its central bank digital currency is currently limited to small retail transactions. According to the Global Times on Aug. 24, the central bank has clarified some details regarding the recent digital yuan — also known as digital currency electronic payment, or DCEP — in order to address rumors regarding the scale and scope of recent pilot projects. Per the report, some Chinese internet users claimed that a person in Shenzhen received a large amount of PBoC’s digital currency after selling local real estate. Wang Peng, an assistant professor …

Central bank digital currencies are a digital representation of a country’s fiat currency. They are effectively a government-issued cryptocurrency designed to replace the traditional, physical form of fiat currencies. The term CBDC is broad because its implementation involves several critical decisions on the part of an issuing central bank. The primary decision is whether a CBDC should be a general-purpose in that it’s available to be used by the general population. If not, then the issuing authority may decide to make it available for “wholesale” transactions, which means the CBDC is only used for settlements between banks. Finally, a CBDC …

The United States Acting Comptroller of the Currency, Brian Brooks, recently expressed his willingness to embrace fintech solutions in an interview with CNN. Brooks, who was formerly Chief Legal Officer at Coinbase, explained that his job now was to “identify impediments that make it harder for people to get what they want and need.” This has already led to a green light for banks to provide crypto custody services, and Brooks also mooted the possibility of a future Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) issued by private companies but backed by bank deposits. The interview also covered the need for faster …

Cryptocurrency firms in Singapore can now draw upon detailed guidance for their license applications to offer regulated services in the city-state. On Aug. 13, the Association of Cryptocurrency Enterprises and Startups, Singapore (ACCESS), rolled out its new Code of Practice to help these firms in their applications for a payments service license. The license has been mandatory for any entity looking to provide specified payment services — including digital payments and the trading of digital tokens — since Singapore’s Payment Services Act came into force in January of this year. ACCESS had the support of the Monetary Authority of Singapore …

The former governor of Reserve Bank of India, Raghuram Rajan, said that private cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Facebook’s Libra may have a future even when central banks roll out their own digital currencies. Rajan, who was also the Chief Economist and Research Director at the International Monetary Fund from 2003–2006, said during a CNBC podcast that one of these digital currencies might only become problematic if it were to hold a monopoly. However, he believes that there will be other private digital currencies that will play different roles and provide strong competition to existing ones. The former central banker …