This paper provides the first causal estimate of the economic impact of interlinking payment systems across countries. We exploit a new dataset of payment systems interlinking initiatives, which identifies over 2,000 connections, and employ standard gravity methods to estimate their impact on...

This article examines the EU-law challenges arising from the use of artificial intelligence for payment initiation and execution (“Payment Agents”) under European Union law. It focuses on Payment Agents that support purchasing workflows and are capable of initiating payments in both...

Amidst the escalating geopolitical fragmentation of the global financial system, divergent stablecoin architectures are emerging. This study employs Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and introduces a formalized 'Geopolitical Stablecoin' (GPSC) model to conduct a systematic comparison of...

This study analyzes cross-border payment systems in Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries, exploring how technological, regulatory, and socioeconomic factors shape their adoption. By combining quantitative data from 43 BRI countries (2018-2024) with insights from interviews with 127...

The use of electronic currency for transactions, denoting a cashless paradigm, has become increasingly common. However, this financial innovation is not prevalent in all countries. This study aims to explain the discrepancies across countries, including individual and country factors. It may be...

Geopolitical frictions and high levels of uncertainty in US policy are driving countries to reduce dependence on the US dollar and implement new policies to promote their own currencies for settling cross-border trade. This Weekly Report analyzes the reactions of firms to such measures, focusing...

The single currency was expected to make the balance of payments irrelevant between the euro-area member states. This benign view has been challenged by recent developments, especially as imbalances between euro-area central banks have widened within the TARGET2 settlement system....

This paper provides a targeted analysis of ML/TF risks pertaining to remittances to Samoa, confirming limited risks, and discusses potential opportunities for streamlining applicable AML/CFT requirements to operationalize regional remittances risk assessments. Over the past decade, Samoa has...

Cross-border payments are essential to the global financial system, facilitating trade and investment. The global cross-border traditional and crypto payment market approached a value of about one quadrillion dollars in 2024, with crypto payments representing only a small fraction despite their...

Between 2012 and 2024, Poland-once a laggard in cashless payments among EU countries-underwent a profound transformation. The per capita number of cashless transactions at physical points of sale increased more than eightfold, rising from approximately 30 to over 250 per year, surpassing the EU...

How can a currency achieve more widespread international use? We study the internationalization of the Chinese renminbi (RMB) through the lens of a unique policy experiment in Argentina. In 2023, amid a severe dollar shortage, Argentina expanded a currency swap line with the People's Bank of...

Remittances are a lifeline for many households in low and middle income countries (LMICs), and have emerged as an important source of external financing for sustainable development. With over 800 million people dependent on remittances worldwide, their importance for developing and least...

This paper explores the current use of crypto-assets for payments, focusing mostly on unbacked crypto-assets, while selectively referring to stablecoins. Although some specific characteristics of crypto-assets, such as their price volatility and unclear legal settlement, render them unsuitable...

Most countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are implementing fast payment systems (FPS), often with the goal of enhancing access to and use of affordable financial services. FPS offer immediate transfer of funds on a 24x7 basis between end users. This paper assesses how FPS can promote...

With the rapid digitization of financial transactions, central banks have given considerable focus in recent years to the research and development of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). While CBDCs could offer several advantages, there are concerns about end-user privacy. Traditional...

How should the international anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) standards be applied in a retail CBDC (rCBDC) setting? This chapter identifies the main categories and characteristics of rCBDCs that may have financial integrity implications and analyzes the...

Central bankers argue that programmable digital currencies may compromise the uniformity of money. We explore this in a stylized model where programmable money arises endogenously, and differently programmed monies have varying liquidity. Programmability provides private value by easing...

As economies across the world continue to digitize, debates around the design and efficiency of national infrastructures for electronic payments have gained added relevance. Central to these debates is the question of how many electronic funds transfer (EFT) systems can viably coexist within a...

In this work, we problematize the issue of the statistical visibility of the trans population in the federal government's databases and administrative records. To the extent that it is represented through informational traces or vestiges, this segment encounters problems about population...

Using prompt-based experiments with ChatGPT's reasoning model, we evaluate whether a generative artificial intelligence (AI) agent can perform high-level intraday liquidity management in a wholesale payment system. We simulate payment scenarios with liquidity shocks and competing priorities to...