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And the Chinese may even have recognized that overly financialized economies have lower rates of growth than ones at a more modest level of financial “deepening”. The IMF found that Poland was at the optimum level, but argued that more finance might not create a drag if the sector was well-regulated.

From China Takes Step Against Securitization, Consumer Borrowing With Suspension of Ant IPO | naked capitalism:

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Now to the substance of the dispute, which led to the halt of the IPO and will require Ant to substantially restructure its business. Ant originates personal and small business loans to parties with little in the way of assets. These loans command higher interest rates than more conventional loans and from what we infer, “higher’ can mean “pretty high”.

From China Takes Step Against Securitization, Consumer Borrowing With Suspension of Ant IPO | naked capitalism:

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Brazilian Economy Minister Paulo Guedes has said that Brazil will issue its own central bank digital currency, or CBDC. The Banco Central do Brasil announced earlier in August that it had set up a study group for the possible issuance of a digital real. Although the central bank has not yet disclosed how the real’s digital version will actually work, the Governor (Roberto Campos Neto) has already declared that it will go into circulation as early as 2022.

From Economy minister says Brazil will have its own CBDC:

It seems like that this will run in parallel with the real-time payment system, PIX.

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The central bank of Brazil is planning the launch of a real-time payments system based on QR codes later this year.

Banco Central de Brasil finished an investigation into instant payments in December 2018
The new system, called PIX, will allow users to send and receive payments via mobile wallets. The central bank has announced that participation will be mandatory for all regulated banks and financial institutions with more than 500,000 customers.

From Central bank of Brazil plans launch of QR-based instant payments system PIX – FinTech Futures:

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Visa is a monopolist in online debit transactions, extracting billions of dollars in fees annually from merchants and consumers. Plaid, a financial technology firm with access to important financial data from over 11,000 US banks, is a threat to this monopoly: it has been developing an innovative new solution that would be a substitute for Visa’s online debit services.

From DoJ sues to block Visa’s Plaid acquisition:

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HKMA is exploring a new data strategy and considering building a new financial infrastructure called Commercial Data Interchange (CDI) to enable more efficient financial intermediation in the banking system, and to enhance financial inclusion in Hong Kong.
The CDI is a consent-based financial infrastructure that would enable more secure and efficient data flow between banks and sources of commercial data. It has the potential of solving long-standing pain points in SME financing by allowing SMEs to use their own data to enhance their access to financial services.

From Hong Kong Monetary Authority – Hong Kong FinTech Week 2020:

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My good friend Dion Lisle once tweeted that he’d accidentally replied to a bot on Twitter. Only after telling

I accidentally replied to a bot…4 followers and a ridiculous position…..oops. https://t.co/YmxlOQpLPy

— Dion F. Lisle (@dionlisle)

March 22, 2020

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

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An AI that is significantly safer than a person may be the best choice for driving a vehicle, but existing laws may prohibit driverless vehicles. A person may manufacture higher-quality goods than a robot at a similar cost, but a business may automate because it saves on taxes. AI may be better at generating certain types of innovation, but businesses may not want to use AI if this restricts ownership of intellectual-property rights. In all these instances, neutral legal treatment would ultimately benefit human well-being by helping the law better achieve its underlying policy goals.

From It’s time to rethink the legal treatment of robots | MIT Technology Review:

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‘All the robots have British accents,’ he says. ‘All the good ones.’

The future of sex: Highly advanced robots that can learn and talk will soon go on sale for £12,000 | Daily Mail Online:

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The RBI has proposed to allow a pilot scheme for small value payments in offline mode with built-in features for safeguarding the interest of users, liability protection, etc. Under the pilot scheme, authorised Payment System Operators (PSOs) – banks and non-banks – will be able to provide offline payment solutions using cards, wallets or mobile devices for remote or proximity payments.

From RBI to allow offline payments using cards, mobile devices – Here is how it works – The Financial Express:

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The Bank of Canada also released a staff analytical note explaining the risks and mitigating the risks associated with CBDCs, rhetoric that seems to arise a lot from the central bank. The note explains that central banks should mitigate risks such as anonymity present in digital currencies,

From Canada Works With G7 to Launch Its Central Bank Digital Currency; ‘Global Coordination’ Needed:

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Tim Macklem, governor of the Bank of Canada, confirmed the country is working with other members of the G7 commission to launch a CBDC. He further called on global cooperation between countries to mitigate digital currencies’ risks, including money laundering across borders and other criminal activities.

“If another country has one and we don’t, that could certainly create some problems,” said Macklem. “So we want to make sure we’re ready.”

This month, the Bank announced they are seeking a lead economist to work in their ‘Digital Currencies and Financial Technologies’ department. As Macklem explains, the economists will play a key in formulating and monitoring a framework for money and payments and the “contingency planning” for a CBDC.

Furthermore, Macklem calls for collaboration between central banks to avoid “surprises from other countries.” He states the importance of sharing information on the digital currencies, plans to build, and “the timeline that they may do it on.”

Macklem played down the development progress stating the central bank “saw no compelling need for one right now.”

From Canada Works With G7 to Launch Its Central Bank Digital Currency; ‘Global Coordination’ Needed:

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Iran has published a new set of regulations to funnel Bitcoin that is mined by Iranians into state coffers so that the country can use them to pay for imports. This announcement was made by a state – run media outlet, the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA).

From Iran crypto miners asked to sell tokens to CBI | Coinlist.me:

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