Latest news with #CentralBankDigitalCurrency
Morocco World
21-07-2025
- Business
- Morocco World
Morocco's Central Bank Tests Digital Currency for Cross-Border Payments
Rabat — Morocco's central bank has completed its first digital currency experiment focused on peer-to-peer retail payments and now moves forward with cross-border payment trials. Bank Al-Maghrib (BAM) Governor Abdellatif Jouahri announced the news on Monday, adding, 'We are conducting another experiment in collaboration with the Central Bank of Egypt and with support from the World Bank on cross-border transfer use cases.' BAM's governor made the announcement during the opening of the 2025 continental seminar of the Association of African Central Banks (ABCA), which runs from July 21-23 in Rabat under the theme 'Cyber-risks and innovative financial technologies: challenges and strategic measures.' Jouahri explained that Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), as sovereign money, can serve as a digital payment option for both wholesale and retail versions. The central bank will complete the project with studies and analyses on legal and regulatory aspects. 'Like other countries on the continent, we have conducted studies at Bank Al-Maghrib on issuing a Central Bank Digital Currency with support from the World Bank and IMF. These studies mainly focused on defining CBDC's strategic objectives and its potential macroeconomic impacts on payment systems,' he said. The BAM governor announced the completion of a draft law that establishes a legal framework for crypto asset usage. The legislation aims to protect consumers and investors appropriately while strengthening market integrity against fraud, manipulation, money laundering, and terrorism financing. Jouahri touched upon the mandatory role of authorities, including central banks, to regulate crypto assets and stablecoins. According to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), these instruments do not fulfill the attributes of public money. 'These instruments present risks of money laundering and excessive disintermediation that could compromise the integrity and resilience of the financial system,' he explained. Morocco's financial services digitalization has been driven by traditional banks adapting to ongoing transformations as well as payment institutions adopting agile business models and a developing fintech ecosystem, Jouahri noted. The central bank recently created the Morocco FinTech Center through a public-private partnership. The platform supports and guides innovative project holders while strengthening a dynamic and inclusive digital ecosystem. 'We want our dialogue with fintechs to be constant to offer them a flexible regulatory framework adapted to their services' specificities and to encourage collaboration between established players and new entrants,' Jouahri stressed. Tags: bitcoin in MoroccocryptocurrencyMorocco's cryptocurrency
Yahoo
19-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Crypto bills stall amid GOP infighting, leaving House in limbo
The House floor was locked at a standstill Wednesday afternoon as a diverse array of House Republicans sparred over a trio of cryptocurrency bills and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) searched for consensus to unfreeze the floor. A procedural vote to advance the three crypto measures — meant to run for just five minutes — remained open more than three hours later as lawmakers from across the GOP's ideological spectrum shuffled in and out of meetings with leadership to discuss the stalled legislation. As of publication, seven Republicans had voted 'no' on clearing the procedural hurdle, including Reps. Lauren Boebert (Colo.), Tim Burchett (Tenn.), Michael Cloud (Texas), Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Scott Perry (Pa.), Chip Roy (Texas) and Keith Self (Texas) — enough to sink the vote in the GOP's narrow majority. By Wednesday evening, Republican Reps. Eli Crane (Ariz.) and Ralph Norman (S.C.) had also joined the 'no' votes, while Reps. Rob Bresnahan (R-Pa.), Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Mark Green (R-Tenn.) were not voting. Lawmakers had appeared poised to approve a series of procedural votes for the bills on Wednesday, after President Trump announced a deal Tuesday night with a contingent of Republican hard-liners who torpedoed a vote earlier in the day. The situation, however, quickly descended into disarray on Wednesday, as Trump's deal failed to appease the entire hard-line group, while seemingly alienating key leaders on the House Financial Services Committee. Three hard-liners — Roy, Self and Greene — initially cast 'no' votes on an early procedural motion before switching to 'yes' and allowing the measure to pass. Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), the chair of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, announced in a post on the social platform X during the vote that the House Freedom Caucus would back the rule after reaching an agreement with the president. 'Under this agreement, the Rules Committee will reconvene later today to add clear, strong anti–Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) provisions to the CLARITY legislation,' Harris said, referring to a bill laying out regulatory rules for the crypto industry. 'This is an important step to ensure Americans are protected from government overreach into their financial privacy,' he added. 'We remain committed to securing these critical protections in the final legislation and ensuring they are preserved as the bill moves through the Senate and into law.' Leadership appeared to put that plan in motion on Wednesday, sending alerts for a 4 p.m. meeting of the House Rules Committee. Just after 4 p.m., however, that gathering was canceled. Drama continued in the next vote — the final procedural hurdle before a final vote — when Roy and Greene once again cast 'no' votes. Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.), vice chair of the House Financial Services Committee, also initially voted against the measure. Johnson huddled with members in his office off the House floor, after which Huizenga switched his vote to 'yes,' while five other hard-liners joined Roy and Greene and changed their votes to 'no.' Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) appeared optimistic about the legislation's prospects Wednesday afternoon, suggesting there was 'a lot of progress.' 'People in good faith are trying to get to 'yes,'' he told reporters. 'They're trying to figure out what is the right way to put the deal together. I think most everybody in that room has a high level of confidence that we're going to get the votes that we need to get this done shortly.' A source familiar with the matter said lawmakers are considering adding a crypto provision to the National Defense Authorization Act or the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Republicans were hopeful that they could pass the three crypto bills by Thursday as they celebrate 'Crypto Week,' but the revolt by 12 hard-line conservatives on Tuesday — and ensuing drama on Wednesday — stopped that effort in its tracks, bringing the chamber to a screeching halt. Republicans must adopt a rule to begin debate and tee up a final vote on the crypto bills. Rule votes are typically routine, party-line affairs, with members of the majority party voting in favor and those in the minority party voting in opposition. In recent years, however, some members in the majority have used the votes as a way to showcase opposition to leadership or legislation. The latest drama leaves the GENIUS Act, a bill setting up a regulatory framework for dollar-backed digital tokens called stablecoins, in limbo. If it can clear the House, the bill is poised to head to Trump's desk, where the president has indicated he is eager to sign the measure into law. The two other crypto bills up for consideration — the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act and the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act — have yet to pass the Senate and face a much more uncertain future. This has been central to opposition from the hard-line GOP contingent. They argue the GENIUS Act could pave the way for a central bank digital currency (CBDC) because it does not include any explicit provisions blocking such a development. While the anti-CBDC bill would bar the Federal Reserve from issuing a CBDC, it appears unlikely to receive enough support to clear the Senate and become law. The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, sometimes referred to simply as the CLARITY Act, faces a similarly questionable path in the upper chamber, where senators are preparing to release their own version of crypto market structure legislation. Crypto market structure legislation seeks to provide regulatory clarity for the industry by dividing up oversight between two financial regulators — the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Stablecoin and market structure legislation, long sought by the crypto industry, has become a key priority for President Trump and GOP leaders. After initially promising to get both bills across the finish line before Congress leaves for its August recess, they have since settled for passing only the GENIUS Act by the end of the month. The White House and key senators have said they're now hoping to wrap up market structure legislation by the end of September. Mike Lillis contributed to this report. Updated at 5:50 p.m. EDT Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Business Recorder
18-07-2025
- Business
- Business Recorder
Digital rupee set to transform Pakistan's financial landscape
Pakistan is undergoing a profound digital transformation towards digital finance in the financial system with the pilot initiation of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP). RAAST is a real-time payment system in the country and the officials of SBP have stated that since its inception in 2021, it has handled more than Rs 8 trillion worth of transactions. The CBDC is not just a channel to transfer money like RAAST – it represents the money itself, issued by the central bank. Pakistan has a mobile phone penetration rate of over 82 percent and the expected remittance inflow of an estimated 38.3 million during the fiscal year 2024-25. It stands ready to use CBDC to enhance financial inclusion by cutting transaction fees, digitalisation of welfare payments, and including millions of unbanked citizens into the formal economy. The economic consequences of embracing CBDC are the trade-offs between high short-term expenditure and efficiency, inclusion, and transparency in the long run. According to the SBP annual report of 2022-23, Pakistan spends over Rs 28 billion annually in cash-management-related activities annually in Pakistan, including storage and maintenance of cash, printing, banknotes processing, distribution, and ATM-related maintenance, despite cash accounting being approximately 62 per cent of transaction volume at the mid of 2023. These expenses may be significantly lower as the use of programmable digital rupees that can be stored on a secure mobile wallet can substantially replace physical money in the system that the central bank can issue as digital form of legal tender. The cost of using traditional payment channels of paying via ATM withdrawals, or clearing a cheque is still expensive and time consuming. As of 2022, the fees for using ATM vary between Rs 20- 23 service fee per transaction, and a cheque clearing process may require two days of business, with challenges to control over liquidity and maintaining cash flow. In addition, the latest Global Findex report published by the World Bank in 2021 revealed that the number of Pakistani adults who are not using any financial service is more than 100 million, clarifying the drawbacks of the traditional financial system of Pakistan. According to State Banks data of 2024, RAAST has facilitated transactions of over 160 million, across bank accounts and electronic wallets, which has made instant and free financial transfers. It has been doing this since its introduction in the year 2021. With that being said, experts share that RAAST is unlikely to make money even though it serves as a payment rail. Contrary to these, CBDC represents sovereign digital currency, fully supported and actually issued by the SBP, and is not dependent on the balance sheets of commercial banks. The trend follows the general pattern abroad, with such nations as China and the Bahamas developing their virtual currencies to supplement or minimize the use of the conventional banking system. According to a report published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in March 2022, China Digital Yuan pilot was commended, stating that CBDCs can enhance financial inclusion with access to safe, convenient digital payment instruments, many of which Citizens, who lack bank accounts, or maintain them at under-staffed or under-equipped institutions, receive limited benefit. Relatively, the Sand Dollar project has been introduced in the Bahamas back in 2020 and has helped in scaling up financial services to previously inaccessible areas in the islands. The legal foundation of CBDC in Pakistan was put in place by the Digital Currency Regulatory Framework (DCRF) act of 2024 that authorized the issuance of digital legal tender by the SBP, cyber security and data privacy requirements, and digital banking licensing. According to the 2023 report published by Bank for International Settlements, unless there is a robust regulatory framework in place, CBDCs can subject users to privacy violation and financial fraud, and therefore it is quite important that Pakistan is already making steps towards setting a regulatory framework. To complement this scenario, the government of Pakistan enacted the Act of Virtual Assets, 2025, which was a historic bill that formed the Pakistan Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (PVARA). The mission of PVARA is to control and oversee the ecosystem of virtual assets that entail, but are not limited to crypto currencies, tokenized assets, and other digital financial products. The mission of such body of authority is to furnish an orderly legal framework that facilitates innovation without jeopardizing investors and alleviating the risk of money laundering, financing of terrorists, and fraud. The Virtual Assets Act has given the PVARA power to license the providers of services involving virtual assets, strict observance of anti-money laundering (AML), and the knowledge-your-customer (KYC) requirements, and established transparency and accountability in the digital asset market. With the formation of PVARA, Pakistan joins an increasingly long list of nations implementing serious sets of rules to handle digital assets such as Singapore Monetary Authority of Singapore and the UK Financial Conduct Authority. This is a step that is also compliant with international requirements as spelt out by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) who requires countries to ensure that they oversee the safety of the virtual assets and the service providers. Among pilot projects it is considering are direct payment of social safety net programs like BISP and Ehsaas via CBDC wallets, programmable utility payments, and cross-border remittance corridors that could help to push the estimated $8 billion of annual informal remittance outflow in Pakistan, the World Bank reported in 2023. There are success stories like eNaira that is being launched in Nigeria, where the Central Bank of Nigeria (2023) notes that eNaira has ended up solving the government-to-person payments, and lowered leakages. The rollout of CBDC also supports Pakistan's project URAAN, specifically its E-Pakistan pillar focused on digital governance and inclusion. By offering digital cash accessible via mobile phones, CBDC could help bridge gaps in financial access, reduce the size of the informal economy, and enhance tax transparency, as detailed in the Planning Commission of Pakistan's 2024 documentation. Globally, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) experts view CBDCs as tools to advance Sustainable Development Goals by promoting financial inclusion and reducing poverty. In its 2022 report, the UNDP emphasized that 'digital currencies can accelerate economic development by integrating marginalized populations into the formal financial system.' To ordinary Pakistanis, living in remote locations or low-income families, CBDC wallets may be their entry point into the formal finance realm. A daily-wage earner or a small-business owner or shopkeeper who may only have a simple mobile phone could access welfare, pay utilities, start savings-all without having to open a traditional bank account. In conclusion, while Pakistan faces significant costs in developing CBDC infrastructure, including cyber security safeguards and institutional reforms, the potential benefits are transformative. These include drastically reduced cash handling costs, faster and cheaper payments, greater inclusion of unbanked populations, and improved government accountability. The CBDC is not intended to replace existing payment systems immediately but to complement platforms like RAAST. Together, these tools can form a resilient digital financial architecture essential for Pakistan's economic modernization. (The writer is an Assistant Professor of Finance at the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE). He can be reached at [email protected].) Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
News18
17-07-2025
- Business
- News18
India's FTAs To Mandate CBDC Trade Corridors Can Slash Costs By Billions
Last Updated: Coupled with better regulatory coordination, robust technological integration, and innovative smart contracts, these digital corridors will transform India's global trade landscape India is actively expanding its Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with key global economies, including the UAE, Australia, Japan, South Korea, the European Union, and the UK. While these agreements aim to enhance bilateral trade volumes, realising their full potential hinges critically on integrating Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) corridors. To maximise trade efficiency, India's FTAs should explicitly include a condition that mandates transitioning trade settlements to CBDC channels, with fintech companies ideally managing these transitions to ensure swift, scalable, and cost-effective implementation. One of the most significant barriers currently affecting international trade efficiency is the high conversion cost incurred when transactions involve multiple currencies. Typically, multi-currency trade—for instance, converting the Indian Rupee to the US Dollar and subsequently to the UAE Dirham—incurs costs ranging from 3.7 per cent to 8 per cent of the transaction value. These costs result from multiple foreign exchange spreads, intermediary correspondent bank charges, and regulatory margins. CBDC-enabled corridors, allowing direct settlements between central banks in digital currencies, eliminate these intermediary costs, drastically reducing conversion expenses to approximately 0.1-0.2 per cent. This reduction equates to substantial potential savings of 3-8 per cent per transaction. The evolving India-UAE trade relationship provides a clear illustration. Historically, India primarily conducted its oil trade with the UAE in US dollars until the onset of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the subsequent exclusion of Russian banks from the SWIFT system in March 2022. The disruption led India and the UAE to rapidly transition away from dollar-based settlements, culminating in a July 2023 agreement to facilitate trade directly in Rupees and Dirhams. On August 14, 2023, India conducted its first oil transaction with the UAE in rupees. By August 2024, the Reserve Bank of India was actively encouraging banks to prioritise direct Rupee-Dirham settlements. Yet, despite bypassing the dollar, structural complexities still impose transaction costs between 3.7 per cent and 8 per cent. Establishing a CBDC-based corridor, ideally managed by fintech platforms, can further reduce these costs, saving India between $3.1 billion and $6.7 billion annually on its approximately $84 billion in bilateral trade with the UAE. These savings are particularly valuable in oil, petrochemicals, and fertiliser feedstock trades, which can be passed on to the consumers in India. Similar benefits would accrue with Australia, where bilateral trade totals approximately $25 billion annually, with a focus on critical minerals such as lithium and cobalt, as well as agricultural products like wheat and pulses. Direct CBDC settlements managed via fintech platforms could produce annual savings of between $0.9 billion and $2 billion, significantly enhancing economic margins for Indian industries in battery manufacturing, renewable energy technologies, and food security. With Japan, a key partner that trades primarily in electronics, semiconductors, and gold, amounting to $20 billion annually, CBDC integration could result in annual transaction savings of $0.7-1.6 billion. Rapid fintech-enabled settlement processes and programmable contracts would optimise supply chains and streamline financial operations. The South Korea corridor, where annual bilateral trade totals about $16 billion in steel, automotive components, and electronics, could benefit similarly, realising cost reductions of $0.6-1.3 billion annually through CBDC-enabled direct settlements. India's forthcoming trade agreement with the EU holds greater promise. Given the scale of trade, approximately $100 billion annually in commodities alone, integrating CBDC-based direct settlement through fintech platforms could yield additional annual transaction cost savings of between $3.7 billion and $8 billion. This could benefit high-value trade segments such as pharmaceuticals, engineering goods, automotive parts, and chemical products. Programmable smart contracts represent another transformative dimension made possible by fintech-managed CBDC corridors. Smart contracts automate transaction execution upon predefined conditions, instantly triggering payments upon shipment delivery or completion of quality checks, thereby significantly reducing administrative overhead and legal uncertainties. This digital programmability enhances transparency, traceability, and trust between trading partners. India's successful prior integration of UPI with the UAE's FAST system offers a compelling model, demonstrating the viability of fintech-driven payment solutions. Extending this experience to wholesale transactions via CBDC, managed by fintech platforms, is the natural progression for large-scale trade, particularly in oil, creating a replicable blueprint across other strategic relationships. Integrating explicit conditions in India's FTAs mandating a swift transition to CBDC settlements, ideally managed through fintech platforms, promises significant cost efficiencies—potentially up to 16 per cent total savings on trade transactions, or tens of billions of dollars annually. Coupled with enhanced regulatory coordination, robust technological integration, and innovative smart contracts, these digital corridors will transform India's international trade landscape, firmly establishing it as a digitally enabled, globally competitive economic powerhouse. K Yatish Rajawat is a public policy researcher and works at the Gurugram-based think tank Centre for Innovation in Public Policy (CIPP). Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18's views. tags : digital currency economy FinTech trade Location : New Delhi, India, India First Published: June 28, 2025, 16:31 IST News opinion Opinion | India's FTAs To Mandate CBDC Trade Corridors Can Slash Costs By Billions
The Hill
16-07-2025
- Business
- The Hill
Crypto bills stall amid GOP infighting
A procedural vote to advance the three crypto measures — meant to run for just five minutes — remained open more than three hours later as lawmakers from across the GOP's ideological spectrum shuffled in and out of meetings with leadership to discuss the stalled legislation. As of publication, seven Republicans had voted 'no' on clearing the procedural hurdle, including Reps. Lauren Boebert (Colo.), Tim Burchett (Tenn.), Michael Cloud (Texas), Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Scott Perry (Pa.), Chip Roy (Texas) and Keith Self (Texas) — enough to sink the vote in the GOP's narrow majority. Lawmakers had appeared poised to approve a series of procedural votes for the bills Wednesday, after President Trump announced a deal Tuesday night with a contingent of Republican hardliners who torpedoed a vote earlier in the day. The situation, however, quickly descended into disarray Wednesday, as Trump's deal failed to appease the entire hardline group, while seemingly alienating key leaders on the House Financial Services Committee. Three hardliners — Roy, Self and Greene — initially cast 'no' votes on an early procedural motion before switching to 'yes' and allowing the measure to pass. Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), the chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, announced in a post on X during the vote that his caucus would back the rule after reaching an agreement with the president. 'Under this agreement, the Rules Committee will reconvene later today to add clear, strong anti–Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) provisions to the CLARITY legislation,' Harris said, referring to a bill laying out regulatory rules for the crypto industry. 'This is an important step to ensure Americans are protected from government overreach into their financial privacy,' he continued. 'We remain committed to securing these critical protections in the final legislation and ensuring they are preserved as the bill moves through the Senate and into law,' Harris added. Leadership appeared to put that plan in motion Wednesday, alerting a 4 p.m. meeting for the House Rules Committee. Just after 4 p.m., however, that gathering was canceled. Drama continued in the next vote — the final procedural hurdle before a final vote — when Roy and Greene once again cast 'no' votes. Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.), vice chair of the House Financial Services Committee, also initially voted against the measure. Johnson huddled with members in his office off the House floor, after which Huizenga switched his vote to 'yes,' while five other hardliners joined Roy and Greene and changed their votes to 'no.'
