/payments

News and resources on payments systems, innovations and initiatives worldwide.

CBDCs could be 'holy grail' of cross-border payments - ECB

Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) could be the answer to the thousand-year search for the holy grail of cross-border payments, according to a new paper from the ECB.

3 comments

CBDCs could be 'holy grail' of cross-border payments - ECB

Editorial

This content has been selected, created and edited by the Finextra editorial team based upon its relevance and interest to our community.

The concept covers a system that is "cheap, universal, and settled in a secure settlement medium," says the paper.

The search for such a solution is as "old as international commerce and the implied need to pay," but could be found within the next 10 years.

The ECB explores several options for achieving this, including correspondent banking, emerging fintech services, bitcoin, stablecoins, the interlinking of domestic payment systems, and CBDCs.

The paper concludes that interlinking domestic systems and CBDCs, both interlinked cross-border through an FX conversion layer, are the most promising avenues.

Listing the benefits, the authors write: "(i) technical feasibility; (ii) relative simplicity in their architecture; and (iii) maintaining a competitive and open architecture by avoiding the dominance of a small number of market participants who would eventually exploit their market power.

"Moreover, (iv) monetary sovereignty is preserved, and (v) the crowding out of local currencies is avoided due to a FX conversion layer at the border (which does not hold for Bitcoin and global stablecoins)."

There are challenges, including AML/CFT compliance to ensure STP, creating an efficient competitive FX conversion layer, and the global addressability of accounts.

"None of these challenges are unresolvable and for large cross-border payment corridors with significant volumes and sufficient political will, both interlinking solutions should be feasible and efficient," says the paper.

Read the paper:

Download the document now 974.3 kb (Chrome HTML Document)
Sponsored [Impact Study] Payment Fraud in 2024: Who is Liable?

Comments: (3)

Eli Talmor CEO at ID-Bound

The paper says:

"The holy grail of cross-border payments is a solution allowing cross-border payments to be immediate,
cheap, universal, and settled in a secure settlement medium."

It looks like TRIO payment system answers all 4 requirements NOW. No need to wait for 10 years...

A Finextra member 

Hawala and the Knights Templar have or had solutions running for a few years that ticked all these boxes too

A Finextra member 

International institutions first complicate cross-border payments and correspondent settlements with strict AML  and other requirements, then look for solutions. Everyday, it becomes more diffucult to open direct correspondent accounts in any EU or US bank for the bank from developing and undeveloped countries. Usage of nested accounts and different banks to make cross border transfer add costs and reduce efficiency. 

[Webinar] Using modern technology platforms to create an AI-driven bankFinextra Promoted[Webinar] Using modern technology platforms to create an AI-driven bank