National Bank of Tajikistan Takes Payment System to New Level

In 2015 and under new management, the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) started to implement a series of fundamental reforms in the country’s banking and insurance sectors, including payment systems. Thus, in order to strengthen the future development…

Argentina: Open Payments and Universal Access, Using a Functional Approach

Instant payments are now fully available across any institution in Argentina, bank or fintech, thanks to a comprehensive overhaul of the Argentine Electronic Fund Transfers regulation published in October 2020. The initiative aims to deliver 1500…

Azerbaijan Launches the New Digital Payment Platform

Aligned with one of the main goals of the State Program, the CBA developed the Instant Payment System (hereinafter—IPS), which successfully launched on October 1st, 2020. The main rationale behind this initiative is to respond to the most recent challenges…

Albania—Chasing the Financially Excluded

Chasing excluded populations that don’t have access to financial services, which add up to around 60% of adult population, is considered to be crucial in addressing the heavily cash reliant economy in Albania and an important key to unlocking opportunities…

Buna: The Right Vision That is Being Delivered at the Right Time

Buna, the cross-border and multi-currency payment system, came to fruition on the 23rd of February 2020 as a culmination of an implementation program launched in 2018 that was preceded by a thorough feasibility study initiated in 2016. In fact, Buna’s…

Future of the Payment System in Nigeria: 2020 and Beyond

Nigeria is acknowledged as a major economic force within Africa, and also an active player in the global economy. To participate actively therefore, her payments system must be credible, reliable and efficient, and successfully benchmarked against the…

Lithuania: Building a Fintech Success Story from a Regulatory Point of View

The ongoing technological transformation in the sphere of financial services has not only improved financial services themselves but also created new opportunities for countries willing to attract innovation. In recent years, Lithuania has emerged as…

Recent Evolution of the Retail Payments Market in Hungary

Over the last decade, the Hungarian payments market has gone through a major development, and the use of electronic payment methods is constantly growing. The Central Bank of Hungary (MNB) actively contributed to the favourable processes in line with…

The Case for a Digital Alternative to Cash in South Africa

The Payments Association of South Africa’s Maurits Pretorius and Vinu Thomas detail the rapid growth of digital payments in South Africa and make the case for a cash-lite society

Dr. Reza Baqir, Governor, SBP Launches Pakistan’s National Payment Systems Strategy to Accelerate Digital Transformation

Sharoon Rasheed and Rehman Pervez from the State Bank of Pakistan’s Payment Systems Department provide an update on the exciting new developments transforming Pakistan’s payments landscape