CBDCs = TOFO (Tools of Financial Oppression)

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U.S. minting facilities shipped just over 11.38 billion coins to Federal Reserve Banks for circulation release during the calendar year, marking a drop of 16.4% from the 13.62 billion coins struck in 2022. The annual level was the lowest since 2012 when the U.S. Mint produced 9.34 billion coins for circulation.
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The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) today announced the first batch of six new projects in its 2024 Innovation Hub work programme, including experimentations on cyber security, fighting financial crime, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and green finance.
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Project Leap, from the Eurosystem Centre, starts its phase II, aiming to "quantum-proof" payment systems, after successfully establishing a quantum-safe communication channel between the central banks of France and Germany in its first phase. Now, the project will show how a payment system can be protected from the potential threat of quantum computers, which may be able to break the encryption systems used nowadays to protect financial transactions.
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Also from the Hong Kong Centre, Project Aurum enters a new phase in which it will study the privacy of payments in retail CBDCs. The goal is to leverage expertise from academia and privacy regulators to advance central banks' understanding of privacy in the design of CBDC systems.
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The recently started Project Promissa tests the feasibility of tokenising promissory notes, financial instruments that help fund multilateral development banks and other international financial institutions. In many cases, these are still paper-based. The project will use distributed ledger technology to simplify their management and transparency. It is conducted jointly with the Swiss National Bank and the World Bank Group, with the International Monetary Fund as observer.

Project Hertha, launched by the London Centre, aims to test the use of network analytics to help identify financial crime patterns in payment systems. It will map current and emerging financial crime typologies in real-time payment systems, drawing upon lessons from instant payment systems and digital asset networks.
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Morgan Stanley has warned about the risk of the U.S. dollar losing its dominance, fueled by growing interest in digital assets, including bitcoin. Emphasizing that the U.S. dollar’s dominance “is being increasingly scrutinized,” the investment bank stated: “A clear shift towards reducing dollar-dependency is evident, simultaneously fueling interest in digital currencies such as bitcoin, stablecoins, and CBDCs.”
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The number of U.S. politicians supporting cryptocurrencies continues to increase, as does the number of lawmakers that oppose central bank digital currencies, highlighting the growing understanding of blockchain technology and the importance of decentralization.
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pmbug said:

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A common denominator in the war on crypto and the war on cash is the cry and focus on anti-money laundering efforts. Money laundering - whether supporting drug cartels or terrorists - is the rallying cry used to justify attacks on financial privacy. It's the fulcrum over which the balance of financial privacy/liberty and surveillance/control are being decided/justified.
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In October, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network proposed a new regulatory regime for crypto mixing services that would treat the entire class of privacy tools as money laundering threats and force new recordkeeping rules on U.S. people or entities that use them. The industry had a chance to weigh in. Here's the gist of their responses.
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There were some 2,000 comments posted as of the time of writing this (of which I read or skimmed a couple dozen), with respondents raising concerns that the proposed rule would infringe on personal rights, capture more of the crypto ecosystem than FinCEN intends and drive legitimate crypto use offshore.

Respondents ranged from privacy-focused wallet providers to industry lobbyists to analytics firms to decentralized finance projects, among others.

Chainalysis, a crypto analytics firm, said the proposals "are too broad" to be effective, and "will result in inconsistent and excessive reporting on transactions," most of which wouldn't be tied to illicit activity.

For example, "everyday economic activity" like liquidity pools or swaps might be captured in the part of the proposal that addresses users exchanging different types of digital assets, a letter from the DeFi Education Fund said.

A few of the letters warned that FinCEN's rule might move activity into other jurisdictions, which could backfire on the U.S. regulator.

The Blockchain Association's letter, for example, said "FinCEN must appreciate that there could be a tipping point at which overbroad and inappropriate anti-money laundering requirements could drive digital asset businesses to other less regulated countries, where there would be no requirement to file suspicious activity reports (SARs) to FinCEN and therefore limit U.S. law enforcement’s access to valuable information."

A letter attributed to America's Credit Unions – a new entity formed after the merger of the Credit Union National Association and the National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions – said that while credit unions don't currently engage in crypto transactions, the proposed recordkeeping requirements would be "potentially burdensome," and that those regulations "should not be duplicative of existing requirements."

"FinCEN should limit the application of its reporting and recordkeeping requirements to certain transactions. As noted, FinCEN has extensive experience with various thresholds," the letter said.

The letter did not provide a suggested threshold, suggesting creating one may not even work "given the complex nature" of crypto mixing.
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Nick Giambruno - International Man said:

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It’s crucial to understand that CBDCs are a reaction to Bitcoin.

Central banks took notice of Bitcoin’s disruptive potential and realized they had better do something before Bitcoin ate their lunch. CBDCs are their response; ...

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A digital euro would be a European means of payment which could be used free of charge, for any digital payment, anywhere in the euro area. Together with cash, a digital euro would preserve European citizens’ freedom to use a public means of payment.
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The digital euro is a common European project.

First and foremost, it is about preserving everyone’s freedom to use a public means of payment anywhere in the euro area, even as payments go digital. ...

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Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell held a closed-door meeting with Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday where he provided an update on the Fed’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) progress, Politico reported. Powell also reportedly discussed stablecoin legislation.
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Why Central Bank Digital Currencies Are Unnecessary and Dangerous​

In a world where there is an excess in money supply growth, there are mechanisms in place to prevent a significant rise in consumer prices caused by the destruction of the purchasing power of the issued currency. Quantitative easing is subject to some constraints that partially prevent inflationary forces. As the banking channel serves as the transmission mechanism of monetary policy, credit demand acts as a constraint on inflationary pressures.

The entire privacy system and monetary limit mechanism would be removed. Moreover, if the central bank makes a mistake and creates an excess of money supply, as shown in 2020, it would immediately make consumer prices rocket. If the money supply increases dramatically in a year, we would experience massive inflation levels as the existing constraints of the transmission mechanism are eliminated.
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U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), joined by Sens. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Ted Budd (R-N.C.), and Mike Braun (R-Ind.), today filed legislation to halt efforts by the Biden administration to issue a central bank digital currency (CBDC):

About the bill, Sen. Cruz said, “The Biden administration salivates at the thought of infringing on our freedom and intruding on the privacy of citizens to surveil their personal spending habits, which is why Congress must clarify that the Federal Reserve has no authority to implement a CBDC. I’m proud to lead the fight in the Senate to restrict the Federal Reserve’s exploration of and attempt to introduce a CBDC to the American economy.”

Sen. Hagerty said, “From Operation Chokepoint to recent reports of political and religious profiling by FinCEN, it is clear that government bureaucrats have been far too willing to exploit the financial system to advance political agendas and target Americans. This bill blocks the issuance of a central bank digital currency, preventing CBDC from being used as a tool to surveil and violate Americans’ privacy.”

Sen. Rick Scott said, “Big government has no business spying on Americans to control their personal finances and track their transactions. It is a massive overreach and a non-starter for me. That is why I am proud to join Senator Ted Cruz to introduce the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act to stand up against this invasive practice and keep Big Brother out of your bank account.”

Sen. Budd said, “As Americans face the prospect of an increasingly weaponized government, ensuring financial privacy is pivotal. A CBDC would open the door for the federal government to surveil and control the spending habits of all Americans. Any push to establish a CBDC must be confronted and stopped, and that’s why I’m proud to join Senator Cruz’s effort to do just that.”

A CBDC is government-controlled programmable money that, if not designed to emulate cash, could give the federal government not only significant transaction-level data down to the individual user, but also the ability to program the CBDC to choke out politically unpopular activity.

The CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act would prohibit the Federal Reserve from issuing a CBDC directly to anyone, ensuring the Federal Reserve can’t mobilize itself into a retail bank. It would also bar the Federal Reserve from issuing a CBDC indirectly to individuals through financial institutions or other third parties, as well as prevent the Federal Reserve from using a CBDC as a tool to implement monetary policy and control the economy. Finally, the bill would require authorizing legislation from Congress for the issuance of any CBDC.
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The legislation is endorsed by Heritage Action for America (HAFA), the Blockchain Association, the American Bankers Association (ABA), the Independent Community Bankers Association (ICBA), and Club for Growth (CFG).

Heritage Action for America said, “While Americans across the country are being punished for thinking, speaking, and voting the ‘wrong’ way, the last thing we need is the government surveilling personal finances. A Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is a fixed-value, government-run cryptocurrency that replaces the dollars in your bank and wallet. Anti-CBDC legislation is necessary to safeguard Americans' financial privacy in the face of potential surveillance, control, and political intimidation. Heritage Action and our two million grassroots activists nationwide encourage congressional action on this issue. We will be issuing a Key Vote Cosponsorship to encourage support for Senator Cruz and Whip Emmer’s bill—the Anti-Surveillance State Act—and will include cosponsorship on our legislative scorecard.”

The Blockchain Association said, “CBDCs present major privacy concerns for everyday Americans, including granting the government the ability to collect intimate personal details on U.S. citizens, and potentially track and freeze funds for any reason. We applaud the introduction of the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act in the Senate – legislation aimed at preventing a CBDC from being issued in the United States.”

ABA President and CEO Rob Nichols said, “ABA has long believed that a CBDC would pose significant risks to our financial system that would outweigh any potential benefits, including undermining the critical role that banks play in extending credit and powering the economy. We applaud Sen. Cruz and his cosponsors for introducing this important legislation that will help protect consumers and our financial system.”

ICBA President & CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey said, “ICBA and the nation’s community banks strongly oppose the creation of a U.S. central bank digital currency, which would disintermediate community banks, reduce credit availability, and undermine consumer privacy. By barring the Federal Reserve from issuing a U.S. CBDC to consumers, the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act would avoid the unnecessary risks to consumers and small businesses that a U.S. CBDC would pose. We encourage Congress to continue advancing this important legislation.”

David McIntosh, the President of Club for Growth said, “The creation of a U.S. CBDC would threaten the financial health of the country and the constitutional rights of law-abiding Americans. It would subject Americans to financial surveillance and discrimination should they hold the ‘wrong’ beliefs, hurt economic growth by crowding out private sector investment, and create significant financial volatility by incentivizing Americans to pull their capital from private banks. Club for Growth applauds Senator Cruz’s introduction of this critical legislation to protect Americans from the dangers of a CBDC.”
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Casey Jones said:

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It's what CONGRESS...AUTHORIZES.
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The West Australian Government is offering families a one-off cash payment. All you have to do to claim it is get a Digital ID.

The cost of living relief payment of $250 for each secondary student, and $150 for each primary student and kindergartener is intended to assist parents with purchasing school essentials.

But the payment is not means-tested, so rich and poor alike, if you have school-aged children, you can claim – provided you get a Digital ID and sign up for the government’s ServicesWA app.
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Swift sets industry up for seamless introduction of CBDCs for cross-border transactions as interlinking solution finds more use cases​

Brussels, 25 March 2024 – Swift today announced the findings of the second phase of industry-wide sandbox testing on its central bank digital currency (CBDC) interlinking solution, with the results showing that its connector can enable financial institutions to carry out a wide range of financial transactions using CBDCs and other forms of digital tokens, easily incorporating them into their business practices.

In one of the largest known collaborations on CBDCs, 38 institutions - including central and commercial banks as well as market infrastructures - took part in experiments which found that Swift’s solution has the potential to simplify and speed up trade flows, unlock growth in tokenised securities markets, and enable efficient FX settlement – all while allowing financial institutions to continue to make use of their existing infrastructure.

Interoperability is critical to Swift’s strategy for instant and frictionless transactions. The cooperative has focused its innovation agenda on interoperability between digital currencies and tokenised assets to overcome the potential risk of fragmentation, caused by the development of digital currencies on different technologies and with different standards and protocols. Swift’s solution has already been shown to enable cross-border transfers and connect CBDCs on different networks with each other, as well as with fiat currencies.

The second phase of sandbox testing went further, exploring more complex use cases, using Swift’s solution to connect and orchestrate transactions across simulated digital trade and tokenised asset and FX networks, alongside CBDCs for payments. More than 750 transactions were carried out over the course of the experiments.

In digital trade, the collaborative experiments successfully demonstrated interoperability between different digital networks and trade platforms, with Swift’s solution facilitating atomic trade payments – payments that are completed simultaneously, alongside the transfer of assets, rather than sequentially. Smart contracts and event-driven programming enabled the automation of payments only once certain conditions had been met, meaning trade flows could potentially become automated 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Participants also highlighted the solution’s potential to reduce delays in global trade, enhance trust among parties, and significantly lower transaction costs.

In securities, the lack of interoperability between tokenisation platforms is a barrier to the growth of tokenisation. The experiments showed that Swift’s solution was able to interlink multiple asset and cash networks and could facilitate atomic delivery versus payment across those platforms. Tokenisation is a new market which is attracting widespread industry interest due to its potential to improve liquidity, lower transaction costs, and enhance transparency and security.

Finally, the experiments showed that the connector could play a role in foreign exchange. Working closely with CLS, the connector was shown to be interoperable with the existing market infrastructure, facilitating FX netting and settlement via CBDCs.

Tom Zschach, Chief Innovation Officer at Swift, said: “Swift is a community – a convener of and for our industry – and I’m delighted that we’ve been able to facilitate these critical innovation experiments and show that institutions can continue to use much of their existing infrastructure alongside new, innovative technologies. Fragmentation is a challenge for the entire industry, and ensuring interoperability between networks is vital to addressing this while also enabling new technologies to scale and reach their full potential.”

The full results report is available here. Swift now plans to extend its solution to support a wider range of emerging digital networks in addition to CBDCs, such as platforms for tokenised deposits.

Participants in the sandbox came from around the world and across the industry, including central banks and monetary authorities from Australia, Czechia, France, Germany, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand, among others. Commercial bank and market infrastructure participants included ANZ; Citibank; CLS Group; DBS; Deutsche Bank; DTCC; HSBC; Hua Nan Commercial Bank; Intesa Sanpaolo; NatWest Group; Santander; Société Générale; Standard Chartered; Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation; The Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank, Ltd; The Standard Bank of South Africa; United Overseas Bank, and Westpac Banking Corporation.

Sabib Behzad, Head of Digital Assets & Currencies Transformation at Deutsche Bank, said: "Interoperability between DLT networks is an important piece of the puzzle to enable efficient connectivity between CBDC and other networks and to avoid silos. Testing Swift’s solution for different use cases such as DvP and FX with 38 commercial and central banks is a significant step to overcoming fragmentation and ensuring frictionless transactions."

Lewis Sun, Global Head of Domestic and Emerging Payments, Global Payments Solutions at HSBC, said: “The ability to interlink emerging and existing market infrastructures is essential to realizing the potential benefits brought on by tokenization and CBDCs. HSBC is excited to continue the collaboration with Swift and other industry peers to incubate an open, inclusive and technology-agnostic model that allows for more efficient payment-versus-payment, delivery-versus-payment, and trade settlement across different networks.”

Stefano Favale, Global Head of Global Transaction Banking at Intesa Sanpaolo, said: “The Swift connector will help interlinking different technologies behind CBDCs and digital asset platforms, reducing the risk of fragmentation and preparing the innovative market to grow.”

Carmen Rey, Head of Swift and CIB Payments at Santander, said: “This initiative solves the need to ensure interoperability in the future CBDC ecosystem by leveraging on existing connections. This will help to facilitate access and usage of CBDCs in the new complex world of digital payments. It also resolves the need to have some standardization and common rules which is another key success factor to expand the use of CBDCs.”

Dirk Bullmann, Global Head of Public Policy at CLS, said: “Our collaboration with Swift and other key industry players demonstrates our commitment to exploring innovative technologies that reduce risk and increase efficiency while also meeting high standards of resilience. As the leading provider of FX settlement services, CLS’s participation in the Swift sandbox allowed us to jointly gain a better understanding of how netting and settlement of cross-currency payments could be designed in a CBDC world.”

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Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell was recently questioned over growing concerns that a US central bank digital currency, or CBDC, might be launched in the near future. Central banks around the world are leading the charge for CBDCs, so it came as a welcome surprise for many when Chair Powell said, “We’re nowhere near recommending or adopting a [CBDC].”

Still, there are several open questions that need to be addressed.
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Politico is reporting that a group of House conservatives are trying to tie a vote on Rep. Tom Emmer’s (R-MN) central bank digital currency bill to a deal on broader cryptocurrency legislation. According to the article, the main reason to avoid this strategy is that it risks “isolating the few Democrats” who support Rep. McHenry’s (R-NC) broader legislation.

Setting aside which members support broader crypto bills, stopping the Fed from issuing a CBDC should not be the partisan issue it is becoming. A CBDC gives the government untold economic power—irrespective of which party is in charge.

Launching a CBDC has nothing to do with losing a technology race, spurring faster payments, or protecting the U.S. dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency. Regardless of what Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) thinks, stopping the Fed from launching a CBDC does not equate to “sticking our head in the sand.”

CBDCs are a desperate reaction by governments to prevent decentralized currencies from threatening the monopoly of national currencies. They enable maximum government control over people’s lives through the direct provisioning of money and financial services.
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Though a future of CBDCs looks likely, naysayers still have several years to prepare for such a development, at least in the European Union, as Dr. Joachim Nagel, president of Germany’s central bank, told attendees at the DZ Bank Captial Market Conference 2024 that “It may take another four or five years before [a digital euro] is actually implemented.”
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Nagel said that while the digital euro project entered the preparation phase in November, that doesn’t mean a final decision on issuing a digital euro has already been made. “The ECB Governing Council will only be able to reach such a decision once the legislative process at the European level has been concluded,” he said. “The introduction of a digital euro needs political backing and a solid legal framework.”

“A digital euro won’t be introduced any time soon. It may take another four or five years before it is actually implemented,” Nagel said.
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While some crypto leaders have been quietly concerned about the rise of CBDCs and what they could mean for privacy, democracy and rising authoritarianism, others have openly supported them — even as they paradoxically promote the advantages of decentralized technologies.

Consensys, the owner of MetaMask and Infura, is one example. It is widely recognized as a foundational force in blockchain technology. It also has an incredibly flirtatious relationship with CBDCS. In partnership with Visa, Consensys is crafting new infrastructure designed to bridge central banks with traditional financial institutions. Other cryptocurrency projects — including Ripple (XRP) and Stellar (XLM) — have likewise been active in allowing their blockchains to be used in the development of CBDCs.

Ripple's native cryptocurrency, XRP, operates on a decentralized public ledger akin to Bitcoin (BTC) or Ethereum (ETH). Yet, in 2021, Ripple introduced a CBDC platform on a separate, private ledger designed specifically for governments, central banks, and financial institutions. This setup allows these entities to exercise complete control over their newfound digital currencies.

Conversely, Stellar advocates for creating CBDCs on its public blockchain, albeit with custom adjustments that allow centralized entities to enhance governance. Within its CBDC Guidebook, Stellar suggests managing monetary policy and programmability centrally but maintaining a decentralized approach to the technological infrastructure and service delivery.
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In the current financial system, commercial bank money, wholesale central bank money, and securities such as U.S. Treasuries and investment grade debt all reside on separate systems. The tokenization of these instruments may enable settlement on a common regulated venue established under existing legal frameworks.

To explore this potential, members of the regulated U.S. financial sector today announced a Regulated Settlement Network (RSN) proof-of-concept (PoC) that will explore the feasibility of shared ledger technology to settle tokenized commercial bank money, wholesale central bank money, U.S. Treasury securities and other tokenized assets.

The RSN PoC envisions an interoperable network for multi-asset transactions that aim to operate on a 24/7, programmable shared ledger. Building on the results of a previous industry PoC, this project will further research the settlement of tokenized cash and securities on a common system.

The RSN PoC will be conducted in a test environment and will simulate multi-asset transactions in U.S. dollars. The PoC aims to highlight opportunities to improve the operation of multi-asset settlements for domestic users of financial instruments denominated in U.S. dollars.

Key aspects of the PoC include:

• Scope: The PoC will simulate Delivery versus Payment (DVP) transactions denominated in U.S. dollars.
  Industry Collaboration: The PoC reflects a collaborative effort by a diverse group of banks and other regulated financial industry participants to gain further consensus on the use of shared ledger technology in the U.S. financial system.
• Legal Analysis: The PoC will include an analysis of whether the envisioned network may operate in line with existing laws, rules, and regulations or guidance in the United States or if any amendments to applicable legal framework(s) may be
• Findings: Following the conclusion of the PoC, the group will publish the findings of the project as an important contribution to the understanding of next generation settlement models.
• Future Research: The participants are not committed to any future phases of research once the PoC is complete.

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) will be serving as Program Manager for the RSN PoC. Participants in this project include the following institutions: Citi, J.P. Morgan, Mastercard, Swift, TD Bank N.A., U.S. Bank, USDF, Wells Fargo, Visa, and Zions Bancorp. Deloitte will be providing advisory services, and the participants intend to engage two additional vendors to provide the technology infrastructure and legal analysis for the PoC.

The PoC will also engage a group of U.S.-based project contributors, who will provide subject matter expertise and explore the applicability of connecting certain external solutions and platforms to the multi-asset ledger. The group of project contributors includes: The Bank of New York Mellon, Broadridge, DTCC, The International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Tassat Group, and the MITRE Corporation, who will engage as a non-commercial knowledge contributor.

The New York Innovation Center (NYIC) at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York will be a technical observer in this PoC to gain knowledge on the use of shared ledger technology as infrastructure to conduct transfers between regulated financial institutions, including settling tokenized wholesale central bank money, commercial bank money, and U.S.

Treasury securities. The NYIC’s role in this project is narrowly focused on observing the participants’ research and experimentation with tokenized settlement assets.

Industry Commentary:

Charles de Simone, Managing Director at SIFMA which serves as the program manager for the PoC, said, “This exploration of shared ledger technology is an important initiative to explore innovations working with digital forms of USD cash and securities, as market participants continue to innovate to support efficient, resilient capital markets.”

Debopama Sen, Global Head of Payments at Citi Services said, “A key element of the tokenization thesis is the potential to build more general-purpose venues for the settlement of financial transactions. In today’s digital economy, financial market infrastructures may need to settle a host of digital assets within well-defined legal frameworks. Citi looks forward to exploring the opportunities of this project, which brings together assets that currently live in separate silos into a 24/7, programmable, multi-asset settlement environment – and aims to do that in a collaborative manner across public and private sectors.”

Raj Dhamodharan, Executive Vice President, Blockchain & Digital Assets at Mastercard said, “As blockchain technology continues to mature, it will be critical for public and private organizations to partner closely to explore how it can be applied to solve for real-world pain points and improve efficiencies. The application of shared ledger technology to dollar settlements could unlock the next generation of market infrastructures – where programmable settlements are 24/7 and frictionless.”

Nick Kerigan, Head of Innovation at Swift, said, “Swift is pleased to continue supporting this collaborative innovation initiative as its focus turns towards multi-asset settlement.

Interoperability between ledgers – and between ledgers and existing market financial infrastructures – will be critical if shared ledger technology is to fulfil its potential. As with other initiatives around the world and as a long-term driver of, and advocate for, industry standardization, Swift looks forward to playing a key role alongside commercial banks and market infrastructures in the realisation of this proof of concept.”

Jonathan Prendergast, Head of U.S. Payments Strategy at TD Bank, said, “There is a potential to create a global, on-demand 24-7 system that can support settlement of financial assets – based upon the stability of sovereign fiat currencies – marrying the stability and safety of the current model with the speed and flexibility required in modern global commerce.”

Amanda CR Morgan, Senior Product Manager, Visa Money Movement, said, “It is great to collaborate with our industry partners and the public sector on the US Regulated Settlement Network. RSN presents an opportunity to explore the impact of innovations in shared ledger technology on settlement, an area often constrained by siloed infrastructures and processes. The RSN PoC has the potential to drive improvements and innovation in settlement, transparency, and money movement for the benefit of the market as a whole.”

Arushi Sood Joshi, Head of Distributed Ledger and Digital Assets Center of Excellence at Wells Fargo, said, “Building on prior public and private sector collaboration, Wells Fargo looks forward to continued partnership to explore both assets and deposits on a regulated settlement network. This combination holds the potential to improve speed and availability for USD settlements.”

Harris Simmons, Chairman and CEO of Zions Bancorporation, said, “The development of blockchain-enabled solutions that will lead to self-executing contracts and other promising products and services is exciting, but in order for this technology to achieve its full potential there’s also the need for interoperability between a wide variety of participants. The exploration of the envisioned Regulated Settlement Network is an exciting major step in that direction.”

Horacio Barakat, Head of Digital Innovation for Capital Markets at Broadridge Financial Solutions, said, “Interoperability between tokenized settlement assets could unlock new possibilities for multi-asset transactions. Distributed ledger technology is paving the way for innovative applications in capital markets, and the RSN as envisioned could be a real catalyst for streamlining transfers between financial institutions. Broadridge looks forward to conducting this PoC alongside key partners as a concerted effort to investigate potential shared ledger technology solutions.”

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The Central Bank of Mauritania (Banque Centrale de Mauritanie) has announced a joint project with German security technology group Giesecke+Devrient (G+D) to explore the development of a central bank digital currency (CBDC), labelled ‘Ouguiya’.
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G+D, which is part of Mastercard’s CBDC Partner Programme, will assist the bank in outlining the requirements for a digital currency and supply the technical support for the initial testing of specific use cases.
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The Bank of Thailand (BOT) has released a report on its Retail Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) pilot project, conducted using Giesecke+Devrient’s (G+D) technology solution. The project tested the digital version of the Baht and its potential for financial innovation, delivering key lessons on the capabilities of a CBDC in supporting multiple online and offline retail payment use cases, said to be serving as a catalyst for innovation, providing open infrastructure accessible by all types of payment service providers, and increasing resilience as an alternative to the existing payments infrastructure. The pilot project used G+D’s Filia retail CBDC solution, and while there is no concrete plan to officially issue a retail CBDC, the BOT will utilize the findings for future studies to enhance the payment system.

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Giesecke+Devrient (G+D) achieved the strongest growth in its history in fiscal year 2023, setting new records for sales, sales growth, and earnings. The G+D Group is entering a new phase in the company's development, and is helping to shape the digital transformation of society as a leading global SecurityTech company.

2023 was a year of growth for G+D with the company generating revenue of three billion euros. G+D surpassed its previous record from 2022 by 18%. ...

The Group's portfolio is segmented into Digital Security, Financial Platforms and Currency Technology. Integrated security technology, with which G+D strengthens the trust of citizens and consumers in the digital age, is the common denominator across all these segments. In Digital Security, G+D protects and manages confidential systems, networks, data and identities. In Financial Platforms, G+D offers solutions for payments and banking. As a global market leader in Currency Technology, G+D offers secure solutions for public currencies in physical and digital ecosystems including solutions for central bank digital currencies.
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