Financial services technology provider FIS recently announced the launch of a CBDC Virtual Lab that will give central banks, commercial banks and other financial participants the ability “to experiment with — and pilot — core concepts of issuance, transfer, redemption, offline payments, programmable payments, retail, wholesale and cross-border payments.”
The goal is to offer guidance as they launch and integrate digital versions of their currency. The CBDC Virtual Lab, developed with M10 Networks, is able to support more than one million transactions per second with less than a second latency.
FIS also launched RealNet Central, an infrastructure payment solution intended to help countries build real-time payments networks or revamp old ones.
Read more: FIS Intros Infrastructure Solution for Global Real-Time Payments, CBDCs
Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve revealed that it is preparing to launch its FedNow real-time payments service next year.
Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic told The Wall Street Journal last week that he thinks “at a very base level,” both a central bank digital currency (CBDC) and the FedNow service will be needed. That contradicts the opinion of Fed Governor Michelle Bowman, who recently suggested that FedNow will make a digital dollar unnecessary.
See also: FedNow Will Bring Round-the-Clock Payments, Federal Reserve Says
Nigeria’s eNaira Friction
Nigeria has been having a difficult time with the rollout of the eNaira, the first CBDC issued by a large country.
Speaking at the 2022 eNaira Hackathon Grande Finale on Aug. 18, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele said that since it launched late last October, the eNaira digital wallet has only been downloaded 840,000 times, with just 270,000 active wallets, according to MSME Africa — which isn’t great in a country of 206 million people and 55 million bank accounts.
Learn more: Concerns Over Lost Fee Income Prompt Nigerian Lenders to Slow CBDC Adoption
Spending was just $9.5 million in the time, he added. A week later, the CBN rolled out a five-digit mobile phone code that allows people to open an eNaira wallet and conduct transactions, he said. That would open the service to people without bank accounts.
“Shortly after this, both merchants and consumers with bank accounts can use the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement Scheme’s (NIBSS) Instant Payment (NIP) to transfer and receive eNaira to any bank account,” Emefiele said. “This will further deepen the integration of the eNaira with the existing national payment infrastructure.”
As PYMNTS reported last month — when the wallet count was 700,000 — the CBDC has not proven popular despite a lack of transaction fee. He also suggested that banks were not enthusiastic about the eNaira because of that fact.
However, that hasn’t prevented other African nations from pursuing CBDCs. Africa and Ghana are the farthest along, with live pilots in place, while Zimbabwe has released a “roadmap for adoption.”
Related: How Lessons From Nigeria’s eNaira Rollout Can Guide Future of CBDCs in Africa
Around the World
Bank of Finland Governor Olli Rehn said that while he is “not be an outright fan of CBDCs, I think the detractors unfairly downplay the potential merits” when they call it “a solution in search of a problem,” CoinDesk reported.
Cryptocurrencies, on the other hand, are “fanned by popular misunderstanding of monetary economics and even conspiracy theories,” he said, arguing that CBDCs, as central bank money, could be trusted completely.
Meanwhile, China announced yet another baby step in its long walk to a full digital yuan rollout: It can be used in buses and subways in Guangzhou, Beijing and other cities.
See also: What China’s Slow Digital Yuan Rollout Says about CBDC Payments
The e-CNY has been heavily used on food delivery giant Meituan and eCommerce site JD.com, racking up $13.8 billion worth of transactions, China Daily reported. Despite that, China has been taking great care to see that people and merchants are ready for its CBDC before kicking off a rollout, upon which it has placed a great deal of prestige.
Additionally, India’s Business Standard reported last week that the Indian government intends to roll out a wholesale version of its digital rupee CBDC this fiscal year, and sources said the design “leaves no room for anonymity by its users.”
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