We field a series of experiments in a population-representative survey of European consumers to examine their attitudes towards the possible introduction of a digital euro. First, we show that a short video explaining the key features of the digital euro is effective in changing consumers'...

The pros and cons of CBDCs have been examined in numerous writings but much less research has focused on specific economies or regions. This paper attempts to fill that gap for the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) economies. It first examines the views of central banks in the region toward...

This paper presents the findings derived from a comprehensive survey conducted by the Central Bank of Malta, in collaboration with the National Statistics Office, with the aim of analysing payment habits in Malta. The research explores individuals' perspectives on various aspects, including...

Purpose Traditional payment systems based on cash and bank cards are being replaced by new innovative formats. This research analyzes the success factors in the adoption by customers of Bizum, a peer-to-peer (P2P) mobile payment system widely used in Spain. This study proposes a theoretical...

The largest cash transfer program in Jordan, operated by the National Aid Fund (NAF), regularly benefited approximately 100,000 households by the end of 2018 (almost 10 percent of the population. NAF provides cash transfers in the range of US $28 to $254 to 16 different categories of vulnerable...

Since its creation in 2011, the Ministry of Development and Social Inclusion (MIDIS) has been the governing body of social protection in Peru, with responsibility for the three largest conditional transfer programs. The largest program, JUNTOS, reaches around 724,000 households in poverty and...

The COVID-19 pandemic has precipitated several challenges, prompting the Indonesian government to enact rules aimed at minimizing direct contact to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, which has also affected transactional activities. Transactions conducted using a digital wallet represent a...

Digital transformation significantly impacts all aspects of the economic system, particularly the functioning of monetary policy and the financial sector. As a key process in modernization, digital transformation encompasses innovations that enable faster, safer and more efficient financial...

Faced with the devastating impact of the rigorous shutdown from late March, a massive package of R500 billion (10 percent of GDP) was announced on April 21. The main elements included: R200 billion in loan guarantees to companies; R50 billion additional for social grants, including a new program...

After providing a general overview of the nature, pros, and cons of crypto assets and CBDCs, this paper focuses on documenting their recent experience in LAC. The region records a high interest in unbacked crypto assets and stablecoins and its authorities' policy responses have varied...

The Methods-of-Payment (MOP) Survey tracks consumer use of cash and other methods of payment. We present core findings from the 2024 MOP Survey, highlighting results from both the survey questionnaire and subsequent three-day shopping diary. Although cash holdings have increased in nominal...

This report by the Consultative Group on Innovation and the Digital Economy (CGIDE) discusses theoretical and real-world use cases of tokenisation, which include initiatives run by the Central Bank of Brazil and the Central Bank of Colombia, and private sector-led initiatives discussed within...

The adoption of electronic payments has increased globally, driving economic growth by enabling smoother transactions. Digital payments enhance speed, security, trust, and efficiency, prompting governments to implement policies that promote financial inclusion through new payment technologies....

We frame the wide spectrum of possible system architectures for an online retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) and identify a promising architecture well-suited for basic payments. We select OpenCBDC 2PC, a representative system design that fits this architecture and analyze it using a...

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...

Payments technologies pose an economic dilemma: network effects can lead to a small number of dominant platforms, but efforts to increase choice can risk market fragmentation. We examine whether interoperability can help resolve this tension, using data from India's Unified Payments...

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...

For the past hundred years or more, payments have been primarily associated with banking, and banking as we know it today-being the result of many centuries of evolution-features a bundling of (at least) three main lines of business: lending, deposit-taking, and payment services. In the past 15...

Digital payments have increasingly been adopted by consumers and firms in Latin America and the Caribbean. This policy research paper analyzes recent post-pandemic data on digital payments in the region to describe adoption patterns, measure adoption gaps, and identify adoption barriers. The...

When paying with a payment instrument in fiat currency within the EU, the transaction is covered by the PSD2, which provides prudent protection for payers and their payment instruments. When the transaction is instead executed in bitcoin, an unbacked crypto-asset, the transaction is not covered...

Inadequate financial literacy and overconfidence in financial knowledge, coupled with the use of mobile payments (MPs), may contribute to harmful financial behaviors. While the relationship between financial knowledge confidence and financial behaviors is well documented, there is limited...

Payment costs for consumers are difficult to determine, are not recorded in an internationally harmonized manner and vary significantly from country to country. They are incurred in many forms, for example as fees for account management, for cash withdrawals at ATMs or for payment cards; but...

Convenience and security are the two key attributes that consumers consider when choosing between payment technologies. We examine how consumers react to an exogenous change to the convenience and security of digital payments. We study an increase in the 'tap-and-go' limit for contactless...

This study analyses the intensity of competition in the online payment sector in the EEA, with a focus on 14 countries. For the purpose of the study, online payments refer to electronic payments made by consumers to merchants for goods and services purchased online. A novel database allows to...

This paper analyzes the public use of Retail Central Bank Digital Currency (rCBDC) during a pilot program in Thailand. For the first time, it utilizes detailed transactional data, including demographic information of users from a real-world rCBDC pilot. The study empirically examines the...

We use agent-based modelling to build a digital twin of the retail payment system, where heterogeneous consumers and merchants interact, learn, and adapt as they meet and use different monies and payment instruments. As we introduce an rCBDC, the model simulates its adoption. We calibrate this...

This paper introduces a novel monthly consumption indicator: the IZA/Fable Swipe consumption index for Germany. It is based on credit card transactions data collected and anonymised by Fable Data from 2017 onwards. We study some of the properties of the data and use a so-called "one year look...

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...