The BIS and CPMI have published their annual survey of central banks' work on MNBCs. It shows a shift in the center of gravity towards wholesale CBDCs (" Central banks are intensifying their work on wholesale CBDCs (...) Medium-term issuance is more likely for wholesale than for retail CBDCs ").
On the wholesale MNBC front, in addition to continuing Eurosystem experiments (see European dossiers), the Swiss National Bank announced on June 20 that it would be extending its Helvetia III pilot project"for at least two years", while the projects carried out under the aegis of the BIS Innovation Hub continue to mobilize numerous central banks around the world:
- Agora project, (" Integration of tokenised commercial bank deposits and tokenised wholesale central bank money in a public-private programmable platform"),
- Rialto project (" Improving instant cross-border payments"),
- mBridge project (" Multi-CBDC platform for wholesale cross-border payments"),
- Projet Meridian (" Synchronised settlement in FX").
Banque de France wins Trophy awarded by the Paris Club of Innovation Directors for its work on wholesale MNBC. These were presented at a conference ("Tokenization and MNBC") organized by the Banque de France on June 28. The Banque de France also entrusted Brigitte Daurelle with a mission on the tokenization funds and NeuCPs, and how to make them a fully-fledged business on the Paris marketplace.
Tokenization figures prominently in the CPMI's 2024-2025 work program, published on May 23, which states that the CPMI and BIS " will deliver a report to the G20 on tokenization in the context of money and payments ". In the United States, the House of Representatives held a hearing on tokenization on June 5. McKinsey has also published a report on the tokenization of financial assets.
On the retail side of MNBC, in addition to the Eurosystem's ongoing work on the digital euro (see European dossiers), we note that in the United States, the House of Representatives (with a Republican majority) passed a bill on May 22, entitled "CBDC anti-surveillance state act". CBDC anti-surveillance state Act "aimed at prohibiting the FED from issuing a CBDC without explicit authorization from Congress.
Also in the United States, and still in a pre-election context, on May 22 the House of Representatives passed a resolution (" Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act") aimed at introducing a specific supervisory regime for cryptoactives, including a division of powers between the SEC and the CFTC. The White House vetoed this text on the grounds that it would introduce an overly flexible supervisory regime, while Gary Gensler, Chairman of the SEC, denounced a form of deregulation of cryptoactives. For his part, Donald Trump presented himself as " the Crypto president ".
Concerning the payment securityOn June 6, the Banque de France, the French Banking Federation and the French Ministry of the Economy and Finance launched a vast awareness-raising campaign on payment fraud. On June 19, the Observatoire de la sécurité des moyens de paiement (OSMP) organized a conference on its technological monitoring work, with two round tables, one on post-quantum payment security, the other on digital identity and payment security.
On the subject of cross-border payments, the CPMI and the BIS have published a series of three reports devoted respectively to the 2023 survey of cross-border payments, the interconnection of fast payment systems and correspondent banking.
Last but not least, the ECB has published its annual report on TARGET and its annual report on the international role of the euro.
To find out more...
MNBC
- The future of coinage: regulatory and strategic issues linked to the introduction of MNBCs (speech by Denis Beau)
- Denis Beau's LinkedIn post
- Hong Kong Monetary Authority - Collaboration between BDF and HKMA Unlocks New CBDC Cross-border Opportunities
- Swiss National Bank to expand wCBDC trials (finextra.com)
- House Passes CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act | Financial Services Committee
- House passes bill barring Federal Reserve from issuing digital dollar (thehill.com)
- The flaws in the CBDC Anti-Surveillance Bill - Ledger Insights
- Hong Kong expands integration with China's eCNY CBDC
- China's digital yuan app drops 'pilot' label, but no announcement
- CBDC Chronicles by Conrad Kraft
Tokenization
- Tokenized financial assets: Moving from pilot to scale | McKinsey
- Why the tokenization of financial assets will not be as massive as expected | Les Echos
- Thomas Pontiroli's LinkedIn post on the McKinsey report
Crypto regulations
United States
- SEC.gov | Statement on the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (statement by SEC Chairman Gary Gensler)
- A Message to the House of Representatives on the President's Veto of H.J.Res. 109 | The White House
- US President Joe Biden Vetoes Overturn of SAB 121 - Details (bitcoinist.com)
Europe
- LinkedIn post by Nicolas Vasse on the May 29 AEFR conference "cryptoactives, how to strengthen the effectiveness of regulation?"
Payment security
Awareness campaign
- Payment fraud: together, let's be vigilant | Banque de France (banque-france.fr)
- Payment fraud: together, let's be vigilant - Press releases - Fédération bancaire française (FBF)
- Payment fraud: together, let's be vigilant - Press - Ministère des Finances (economie.gouv.fr)
- Means of payment: general mobilization in the face of rising scams | Les Echos
- Denis Beau's LinkedIn post
- Erick Lacourrège's LinkedIn post
- Alexandre Stervinou's LinkedIn post
OSMP conference on June 19
Payment systems
ECB report on the international role of the euro
- The international role of the euro, June 2024 (europa.eu)
- Why Europe must safeguard its global currency status (europa.eu)
