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As a result, govcoins could cut the operating expenses of the global financial industry, which amount to over $350 a year for every person on Earth. That could make finance accessible for the 1.7bn people who lack bank accounts.

From The digital currencies that matter | The Economist:

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One motivation for governments and central banks is a fear of losing control.

From The digital currencies that matter | The Economist:

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Even the technological case for ecny is far from clear-cut. When companies transfer money in and out of China, they already use currency in a digital format: electronic messages on the swift payments network instruct banks to credit accounts in one country and debit them in another. What slows things down is complying with China’s capital controls and with international regulations such as those aimed at stopping money-laundering.

The ecny will not eliminate such checks, and the Belgium-headquartered swift system, which connects more than 11,000 financial institutions, is likely to remain the most efficient conduit for sharing payment information across borders. “Even in the long term, swift will remain indispensable,” says Liu Dongmin of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

From Will going digital transform the yuan’s status at home and abroad? | The Economist:

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Aussies are increasingly choosing digital wallets as their preferred way to pay compared to tapping a card, according to latest figures from CBA.

Between March 2020 and March 2021 the number of monthly digital wallet transactions – where consumers used a smartphone or smartwatch that include CBA tap-and-pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, Apple Pay, Fitbit Pay, and Garmin Pay – increased 90%, with the number of transactions rising from 36 million to 68 million.

As of March 2021, more than 40% of the bank’s combined debit and credit card contactless transaction count was via a digital wallet.

From Digital wallets poised to overtake contactless cards as instore payment of choice in Australia.

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Introductory remarks by Fabio Panetta, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, at the 14th Payment Forum of Suomen Pankki − Finlands Bank, Helsinki, 19 May 2021

From At the edge of tomorrow: preparing the future of European retail payments.

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While the cost for service providers of using TIPS is 0.20 eurocent (€0.002) per instant payment transaction, instant payments are sometimes offered to consumers for €1 per transaction. This must change.

 

We are also preparing for the future through our work on a possible digital euro. A digital euro would provide Europeans cost-free access to a safe form of digital money which respects privacy and has legal tender status, ensuring it can be used everywhere.

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The 6AMLD formally detailed the key money laundering offenses countries should criminalize and widened the scope of what should be considered an offence.  Offences are listed below:
Conversion or transfer – This includes converting or transferring criminal property to conceal or disguise the illicit origin of the property or assisting a person who is involved in activity to evade legal consequences of their actions
Concealment or disguise – This includes concealing or disguising the nature, source, location, disposition, movement or the ownership rights of criminal property
Acquisition, Possession or Use – This includes acquiring, possessing and using criminal property with the knowledge that it is criminally derived property
6AMLD created an additional offense of “aiding and abetting, inciting and attempting” any of the aforementioned offences, specifically targeting professional enablers and gatekeepers,
and introduced the concept of ‘self-laundering,’ which is where a criminal cleans the proceeds generated by his or her criminal activity.

From 6AMLD: Risks and Liabilities | ComplyAdvantage.

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Medical and personal information about Irish patients stolen by hackers last week is now being shared online, screenshots and files seen by the Financial Times show.

The records offered online by hackers to further their demands for almost $20m in ransom also include internal health service files, such as minutes of meetings, equipment purchase details and correspondence with patients.

From Irish patients’ stolen data appears online | Financial Times:

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Some form of persistent identity is essential to many of the most fair and efficient models for value exchange

From The FairPay Zone: Web Monetization and Payments, Meet The Relationship Economy and FairPay:

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he FairPay framework suggests that a selective and controlled relaxing privacy constraints — in business contexts in which a necessary level of trust and cooperation can be established — can not only enable added function, but can enable a far more win-win level of value co-creation, to the benefit of all involved parties.

From The FairPay Zone: Web Monetization and Payments, Meet The Relationship Economy and FairPay:

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It is frequently taken at face value that inclusion will be an inevitable byproduct of CBDCs. This has been questioned by the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), a global partnership of more than 30 leading development organisations that works for financial inclusion around the world as a means to improve the lives of the poorest people. They say they “are not convinced” that CBDCs will advance inclusion, and nor am I.