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.

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.

By leveraging emerging technologies, and availing infrastructure to seamlessly integrate with those technologies both at a bi-currency level (country-to-country) and at a multi-CBDC level or consortium of multiple countries, a foundation for a truly global…

The past decade has been a game-changer for Jordan's financial ecosystem, especially in terms of digital financial services and financial technology. In the first half of the decade, the country saw major developments in digital infrastructure, legislative…

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…

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…

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

The Central Bank Payments News team recently caught up with Dardan Fusha, Director of the Department for Payment Systems at CBK, who filled us in on the implementation of CBK’s National Retail Payments Strategy, plans to enhance legislation and regulation…

In my previous article in this publication a few months after the launch of Buna in 2020, I shared some thoughts on the challenges that cross-border payment systems must tackle to develop and progress. In the past two years, we have been onboarding new…