Bank of Albania: In Conversation with Ledia Bregu, Part Two

In part two of our interview with Ledia Bregu, Director of Payment Systems, Accounting and Finance Department for the Bank of Albania (BoA), the conversation turned to AIPS EURO, a new payments infrastructure launched in 2022, Albania’s EU membership…

Bank of Albania: In Conversation with Ledia Bregu, Part One

The Feature article in the August 2020 issue of Central Bank Payments News (CBPN) was authored by the Bank of Albania’s Ledia Bregu. At the time, Albania was less than half-way through its National Retail Payments Strategy, 2018–2023, an ambitious document…

Mojaloop: Achieving Financial Equity Across Asia and Africa Requires a Digital Approach to Financial Inclusion

Named after the Swahili word for “one,” the Mojaloop open-source software project was established in 2017 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to address the lack of guaranteed inclusiveness and interoperability within nations’ payment systems to allow…

The AFI’s South Asia Region Financial Inclusion Initiative: A Regional Commitment to Inclusive Financial Services

AFI’s eight South Asian member institutions came together at the Global Policy Forum (GPF) in September 2022 to launch the South Asia Region Financial Inclusion Initiative (SARFII). With AFI coordinating and facilitating the initiative, members are collaborating…

Visa: How CBDC Can Help Drive Digitization and Responsible Innovation

In this article, we will focus on the various aspects of CBDC that can help drive digitization and promote responsible innovation. We believe digitization will help drive new value created in the global economy in the coming decade. However, the rate…

Payments in Kenya: Past, Present, and Future

In this series of articles, the Central Bank of Kenya explores recent developments in payments in Kenya, in line with the Bank’s vision of being A World Class Modern Central Bank. The country's payments ecosystem has undergone major developments and shifts…

Kazakhstan: Future of Payment and Digital Financial Infrastructure

The National Bank of Kazakhstan is building payment and digital financial infrastructure in the interests of everyone. These projects are aimed to stimulate competition, increase security and convenience, and, importantly, reduce the cost of financial…

Instant Payments: Cornerstone of a Future Digital Payments Ecosystem

A conversation about instant payments with Deniss Filipovs, Strategic Business Development, and Edgars Bremze, Lead Strategic Product Manager, at Tietoevry

Centro de Innovación Financiera: Creating the Regulatory Framework for Fintech in Costa Rica - The Leading Role of the Regulator in a Small Economy

This article describes the elements of the FinTech roadmap that the Superintendencies, the National Council for Supervision of the Financial System (CONASSIF), and the Central Bank of Costa Rica (BCCR), have been implementing for the design of a regulatory…

ProgressSoft: Offline Use in Central Bank Digital Currencies - Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Offline use may be a critical differentiating factor in the value proposition of a CBDC for end users, compared with its commercial bank card and electronic counterparts. Because consumers understandably do not appreciate the difference between commercial…