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Venezuela also wants in, but I don't know that the BRICS are eager to have Maduro at the table.
 
From a few weeks ago:
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina suggested on Tuesday that the Muslim countries introduce a common currency like the euro of the European Union to facilitate trade and commerce among them.

“It would be very good if we could introduce a common currency following the European Union to facilitate trade and commerce among us,” she said.

The prime minister said this while a delegation of D-8 trade ministers led by Turkish Deputy Minister of Trade Mustafa Tizcu called on her at her official residence, Ganabhaban.

PM’s speech writer, M Nazrul Islam, briefed the reporters after the call.

Sheikh Hasina said that the D-8 was formed with the eight Muslim-majority countries of the world, aiming to enhance trade and commerce among them along with improving friendship to develop the socioeconomic status of the people of these countries.

The group comprises Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Turkiye.
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No word on whether or not this suggestion has any relation to interest in gold dinars.
 
Digital euro development update IIF Staff Note April 2, 2024

This staff note reports on recent developments in the digital euro project, focusing on the launch of mandates for seven new workstreams under the project’s Rulebook Development Group(RDG), the publication of a technical note on enforcing the digital euro holding limit across multiple wallets, and the European Central Bank’s (ECB’s) ongoing exploratory work on new technologies for wholesale central bank money settlement, including an invitation for financial market stakeholders to participate in planned trials in 2024.

More (pdf):

 
Anyone see this? The real reason for Janet's second China visit in less than a year.

Yellen warns China of "significant consequences" over it's trade with Russia on anything that could be used to help them in their efforts in Ukraine.
Which, depending on how that's defined, could mean anything. Food could be considered as being "help". Gotta feed the troops somehow.

www.politico.eu

‘Significant consequences’ if Chinese firms help Russia’s war in Ukraine, US’s Yellen warns

US Treasury secretary’s admonition comes after Blinken said China is aiding Moscow’s war effort.
www.politico.eu www.politico.eu
 
tenor.gif
 
Heh the Feds ‘deferred asset account’ sounds a lot like Nick Leeson’s overnight balancing account that worked so well for Barings bank, until it didn’t ….
 
Article contains a link to a 9-page pdf. It's a quick and easy read.

www.bis.org

Klaas Knot: Public money - keeping up with the times

Opening remarks by Mr Klaas Knot, President of the Netherlands Bank, to the European House-Ambrosetti's panel on "Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs): The Future of Money", Cernobbio, 5 April 2024.
www.bis.org www.bis.org
 
Contains link to pdf. Easy read / scan.

Abstract​

This paper lays out a vision for the Finternet: multiple financial ecosystems interconnected with each other, much like the internet, designed to empower individuals and businesses by placing them at the centre of their financial lives. It advocates for a user-centric approach that lowers barriers between financial services and systems, thus promoting access for all. The envisioned system leverages innovative technologies such as tokenisation and unified ledgers, underpinned by a robust economic and regulatory framework, to dramatically expand the range and quality of financial services. This integration aims to foster greater participation, offer more personalised services and improve speed and reliability, all while reducing costs for end users. Most of the technology needed to achieve this vision exists and is fast improving, driven by efforts around the world. This paper provides a blueprint for how key technical characteristics like interoperability, verifiability, programmability, immutability, finality, evolvability, modularity, scalability, security and privacy can be incorporated, and how varied governance norms can be embedded. Delivering this vision requires proactive collaboration between public authorities and private sector institutions. The paper serves as a call for action for these entities to establish a strong foundation. This would pave the way for a user-centric, unified and universal financial ecosystem brought into the digital era that is inclusive, innovative, participatory, accessible and affordable, and leaves no one behind.

www.bis.org

Finternet: the financial system for the future

This paper lays out a vision for the Finternet: multiple financial ecosystems interconnected with each other, much like the internet, designed to empower individuals and businesses by placing them at the centre of their financial lives. It advocates for a user-centric approach that lowers...
www.bis.org www.bis.org
 

Introduction​

Welcome to today's conference and a very warm welcome to those who have joined us from overseas. I would like to spend the next 15 minutes to share my thoughts on central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, and what it means for the future of money and payment systems.

Throughout history, the evolution of money and its institutional foundations have closely followed the advancements in technology. Today, we are witnessing a significant shift in how we view and use money in our increasingly digital world.

The way we make payments is changing, with a decline in cash transactions and a growing trend towards digital payments for goods and services. The developments in the online space are even more interesting, with an explosion of new asset classes and transaction protocols.

In response, some 130 central banks have been conducting research on CBDCs as an advanced representation of central bank money for the digital economy. The HKMA is an early mover in this respect, having started CBDC explorations since 2017 with Project LionRock, which has since evolved into Project mBridge, one of the more advanced explorations of a multi-CBDC platform globally.

www.bis.org

Eddie Yue: Keynote speech - International Conference on Central Bank Digital Currencies and Payment Systems

Keynote speech by Mr Eddie Yue, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, at the International Conference on Central Bank Digital Currencies and Payment Systems, Hong Kong, 11 April 2024.
www.bis.org www.bis.org
 
searcher said:
...
This paper lays out a vision for the Finternet: ...
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I have not yet read the paper, but I assume they propose a system based upon a centralized authority for the backbone. It's unnecessary. Free market innovation in the decentralized crypto space is already developing the interconnectedness like neurons in the brain forging synapses.
 
AEP talking about things financial media rarely talks about:
A powerful force is stalking the world’s gold market. It is operating in the shadows.

None of the normal footprints are visible on the London bullion market or the Chicago Mercantile. Retail goldbugs have not been buyers: ETF gold funds have been shrinking since December. The crowd is piling into the Bitcoin scam instead.

Yet gold has smashed through a four-year barrier around $2,000 an ounce, rising in parabolic fashion since mid-February, and hitting an all-time high of $2,431 on April 11. Is somebody preparing for an escalation of the shadow Third World War?

“It is not a Western institution behind this. It is a massive player with very deep pockets. I have never seen this kind of buying before,” said Ross Norman, a veteran gold trader and now chief executive of Metals Daily.

Gold has been ratcheting up fresh records against the headwinds of a strong dollar, a 70 point jump in 10-year US Treasury yields, and hawkish talk from the Federal Reserve. This mix would normally spell trouble for gold.

Whoever it is – or they are – seems insensitive to cost. Central banks do not behave like this. “They buy on the London benchmark and they don’t chase the price,” said Mr Norman. This rally is happening off books in the OTC market.

Yes, China’s central bank has been adding to its declared gold reserves for 17 consecutive months, part of the gradual portfolio shift away from US Treasuries and European bonds by the Global South.

Dollar weaponisation since the war in Ukraine has unnerved every country aligned with the authoritarian axis of China and Russia. None can feel safe parking money in Western securities after Russia’s foreign reserves were frozen.

Yet the scale is modest. The World Gold Council said central banks bought a net 18 tonnes in February: 12 in China, six in Kazakhstan and India, four in Turkey, partly offset by Russian sales. This hardly moves the needle.
...
But this alone cannot account for the price surge, either. Mr Norman says the gold flow to Asia has been within normal bounds.
...
There is a strong suspicion among gold experts that China is behind the surge in buying, building up a war-fighting bullion chest through state-controlled banks and proxies. But others, too, can see that we are living through a fundamental convulsion of the global order, and that the dollarised financial system will not be the same at the end of it. Gold is the hedge against dystopia.

However, there is a parallel explanation. Covid finally broke our spendthrift governments. The talk in hedge fund land is that some big beasts are taking bets against “fiscal dominance” across the West.

It is a collective judgment that too many countries have pushed public debt beyond 100pc of GDP and beyond the point of no return under prevailing economic ideologies and political regimes. Budget deficits have broken out of historical ranges and are running at structurally untenable levels for this stage of the cycle.

Central banks will bottle it – under this scenario – in order to mop up issuance of treasury bonds. They will let inflation run hot to help states whittle down debts by stealth default. You might argue that this is what they already did by letting rip with extreme money creation during the pandemic.
...
Of course, the gold spike may be nothing more than wolf pack speculation by funds orchestrating a squeeze on bullion shorts through the options market, knowing that this sets off a self-fueling feedback loop. If so, the rally will short-circuit soon enough.

My bet is that a big animal with a Chinese accent is bracing for geopolitical or monetary disorder on a traumatic scale.
Click to expand...

www.telegraph.co.uk

Gold is sniffing out monetary and geopolitical dystopia

‘Never seen before’ levels of buying could be the makings of a war chest
www.telegraph.co.uk www.telegraph.co.uk

I think the SGE price premium is letting the cat out of the bag on this one.
 

Israel and South Korea expand CBDC exploration, announce upcoming pilot projects​

(Kitco News) – The testing of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) continues to ramp up despite rising geopolitical tensions and a struggling global economy as Israel and South Korea have both announced new pilot projects as they advance toward releasing digital fiat for public use.

According to Andrew Abir, deputy governor of the Bank of Israel, the central bank is preparing to launch a sandbox environment for testing CBDC use cases in an effort to refine the design of the digital shekel and ensure its capacity to facilitate advanced applications.

“We are now building the system and intend to officially announce the project in the coming weeks,” Abir said in a statement released Tuesday.

Abir reiterated that “a digital shekel is a liability of the Bank of Israel to the public – and in that sense, it is similar to cash, whose holding does not involve credit risk.”

More:

 
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