South Africa is considered by many to be a dual economy where a large percentage of the population live in poor conditions in rural areas, and another significantly large percentage are wealthy and live in urban areas. Many of the people that live in…
Our tour of the Western Balkans continues this month as we catch up with the National Bank of the Republic of North Macedonia’s Igor Velickovski, who discusses the transformative role of a recently enacted law on payments, North Macedonia’s SEPA ambitions,…
Despite all the recent attention on the topic of offline payments, there remains an unclear understanding in the market around the practical design choices and trade-offs for offline real-time payments and CBDCs. Crunchfish, a pioneer for offline payments,…
On May 23, 2022, the Central Bank of Paraguay (BCP) implemented the first phase of the Paraguayan Instant Payment System (SPI). This first phase consisted of implementing electronic fund transfers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (24x7). For end customers,…
Various projects aimed at promoting the financial inclusion of vulnerable populations have developed savings group models. A savings group consists of 15 to 25 people who choose to form the group together and set aside money which they will then use for…
It will likely be private sector innovation that provides the key to unlocking faster, safer, more efficient, and less expensive cross-border payments. The private sector is well placed to advise on and illustrate the practicalities of how to improve…
Fast payments are an important layer in digital public infrastructures — i.e., foundational systems back boning the provision of essential functions and services in a modern society — with the potential to drive economic growth and sustainable development.
Mobile money continues to grow rapidly, bringing a suite of financial products to the fingertips of hundreds of millions of users and disrupting traditional financial services. From Dakar to Nairobi, Cairo to Cape Town the mobile money wallet is serving…
In Africa, the development of Instant and Inclusive Payment Systems (IIPS) and the use of open-source software like Mojaloop offer hopes of speeding up the onboarding of more than 350 million financially excluded adults on the continent.
I see five macrotrends, driven by a combination of consumer preference, technology, and regulation, that will affect the future of payments and define how payments will look in the next couple of years.
