Blockchain to Become More Relevant in Payments This Year, Sberbank Exec Says

March 20, 2023 Bitcoin.com

Australian Banking Association’s cost of living inquiry reveals bank pressure

March 20, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Australia

An analysis of the rising inflation and concurrent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank proved that more than 186 banks in the U.S. are at risk of a similar shutdown if depositors decide to withdraw all funds.

The trade association for the Australian banking industry — Australian Banking Association (ABA) — launched a cost of living inquiry to closely study the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, global supply chain constraints and geopolitical tensions, among others, on Australians.

An analysis of the rising inflation and concurrent collapse of three major traditional banks — Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), Silvergate Bank and Signature Bank — recently proved that more than 186 banks in the US are at risk of a similar shutdown if depositors decide to withdraw all funds. ABA’s inquiry aims to identify ways to ease the cost of living in Australia and the Government’s fiscal policy response.

*Consumer price index, percentage change from corresponding quarter in previous year, December 2012 – December 2022. Source: ausbanking.org.au*

ABA acknowledged that many Australians would struggle to adjust to a higher cost of living, while it may be easier for some, adding that:

“The ABA notes most customers will manage the higher cost of living and their mortgage commitments by changing their spending patterns, applying their accumulated savings to their higher repayments in anticipation of higher borrowing rates, or refinancing their mortgage.”

One of the biggest pressures for banks was when citizens rolled over from a fixed-rate mortgage to a variable rate. However, ABA urged customers to be proactive and ensure they are getting the best deal for their banking services.

*Household savings ratio, December 2014 – December 2022. Source: ausbanking.org.au*

Property rent across Australia has also witnessed a steady increase as markets normalized following the end of COVID-19 restrictions. Citizens experiencing financial difficulty can contact their banks and get help, including fees and charges waivers, emergency credit limit increases and deferral of scheduled loan repayments, to name a few.

Alongside this attempt to cushion Australians against rising fiat inflation, the Reserve Bank of Australia and Treasury have been holding private meetings with executives from Coinbase, with discussions revolving around the future of crypto regulation in Australia.

Consultation open! Today we released the token mapping consultation paper. This consultation is part of a multi step reform agenda to develop an appropriate regulatory setting for the #crypto sector. Read paper & submit views @ https://t.co/4W2msjhP9B @ASIC_Connect @AUSTRAC pic.twitter.com/OGHuZEGvDp
— Australian Treasury (@Treasury_AU) February 2, 2023

Cointelegraph confirmed from an RBA spokesperson that Coinbase met with the RBA’s Payments Policy and Financial Stability departments in mid-March “as part of the Bank’s ongoing liaison with industry.”

FTX Debtors Reveal $6.8 Billion Hole in Balance Sheet Amidst Financial Discrepancies and Payments to Insiders

March 18, 2023 Bitcoin.com

Blockchain is the answer to Russia’s settlement issues, banking exec says

March 15, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

There is no technical reason preventing Russia from creating its own blockchain-based system, blockchain provider Fuse Network’s CEO believes.

The adoption of blockchain is the right direction for Russia to solve its current settlement issues, according to an executive at Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank.

Blockchain technology has matured over the past few years to offer new capabilities that potentially enable Russia to create more efficient payment systems, Sberbank first deputy chairman Alexander Vedyakhin said.

On March 14, Vedyakhin took part in the meeting of Russia’s Federation Council on the budget and financial markets committee, highlighting the promising future of blockchain in Russia, the local news agency Interfax reported.

According to Vedyakhin, distributed ledger technology (DLT) is a great foundation for a new payment system due to its decentralized nature and privacy-enabling features. He stated:

“Because it’s a distributed ledger, there is no single point of decision-making, no center, no switch that can be turned off; everyone has records of everything, and there are special protocols that allow you to do this confidentially.”

Vedyakhin added that Sberbank is currently actively exploring the implementation of blockchain technology for payments. “We are confident that Sberbank and other colleagues from the central bank will find this solution,” he stated, expressing confidence that blockchain will become more relevant in 2023. The Sberbank executive said:

“Next-generation payment systems will be on blockchain.”

In his speech, Vedyakhin also noted that blockchain technology has rapidly evolved over the past few years, with developers managing to find solutions to issues, such limited scalability and limited privacy. These blockchain issues have been solved so far, he added.

According to Mark Smargon, CEO of the permissionless public ledger project Fuse Network, there is no technical reason preventing Russia from creating its own blockchain-based system.

“Major adoption by mainstream businesses and their consumers is right around the corner thanks to recent developments in scaling and privacy technology, notably on EVM [Ethereum Virtual Machine]-compatible systems, which have become the standard for experimentation,” Smargon said in a statement to Cointelegraph.

He noted that fully online real-time technology for cross-border payment settlement is “only a matter of time,” with technology significantly maturing over the past few years. At the same time, Smargon questioned whether blockchain could enable economies to bypass international sanctions, stating:

“It needs to be clarified when this technology will become widely adopted and whether it will enable users to bypass international sanctions. Blockchain enables better transparency, and disintermediation is not only a solution for illicit activities.”

The news comes amid Sberbank finalizing its Ethereum-based decentralized finance platform, which it plans to trial by May 2023. Russia’s largest bank has also been working on an international settlement platform that would serve as an alternative to SWIFT. According to Sberbank CEO German Gref, the company plans to finalize its configuration in 2023.

Tassat blockchain to join FedNow service with B2B onramp as pilot prepares for launch

March 14, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

The New York-based fintech said it will provide an API to allow clients to access the new Federal Reserve real-time payment service when it premiers.

Blockchain operator Tassat announced March 14 that it will provide access to the United States Federal Reserve’s FedNow payment system. FedNow, which will launch as a pilot project later this year, will provide real-time, round-the-clock payment service.

Tassat will serve as a business-to-business onramp for FedNow through a client-facing application programming interface (API), CEO Kevin Greene told Cointelegraph. Both the company’s interbank and intrabank services will provide FedNow access.

The FedNow pilot is expected to begin in June or July with a small number of banks. The system will offer real-time gross settlement by funneling commercial bank money from a sender through a Fed credit account to its recipient. It is often seen as a non-blockchain alternative to central bank digital currency (CBDC) and to stablecoin.

FedNow will initially be available only for domestic transfer, which suited Greene. “We have a lot of work to do here in America,” he said. He referred to the U.S. financial infrastructure as “antiquated.”

Fednow… pic.twitter.com/OGRW3kUUBh
— MetaMan X ™️ (@MetaMan_X) March 8, 2023

Tassat has a pipeline of six banks, which include the recently-shuttered Signature Bank. Greene said of the recent bank closures:

"Recent events have illuminated the existential crisis that small, mid-sized and regional banks face, particularly being squeezed out by the mega banks.”

Blockchain adoption is progressing rapidly in the banking system, according to Greene. “Sixteen months ago, most bank CEOs didn’t know much about blockchain at all,” he said, “and today the feeling is […] they have to have some kind of blockchain strategy.” Greene Added that Tassat had doubled its number of employees to 90 in the past 12 months.

Greene began as an investor and board member at the company when it was founded in 2017, then moved into the CEO and chairman positions.

Binance Launches Prepaid Card in Colombia

March 13, 2023 Bitcoin.com

Ukraine’s central bank sees both promises and threats in Bitcoin

March 9, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Banks

The central bank of Ukraine sees crypto as a threat to macro-financial stability and a promising opportunity for better payments at the same time.

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has expressed a mixed stance on cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) after a year of war in the country.

The central bank of Ukraine sees both good and bad in virtual assets, taking a more skeptical approach to crypto due to financial and economic issues caused by the invasion, according to the NBU press office.

In April 2022, the NBU prohibited citizens from buying cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin using the national currency, the hryvnia (UAH), only allowing such purchases via foreign currency accounts. The central bank also set a monthly limit on such purchases, prohibiting Ukrainians from buying more crypto than worth UAH 100,000 ($3,300) per month. The restrictions also apply to cross-border peer-to-peer transactions.

The administrative restrictions involving operations with cryptocurrencies in Ukraine are temporary, a press officer for the NBU told Cointelegraph on March 9. The limits will be “gradually weakened as the functioning of the economy and financial market of Ukraine normalizes,” the NBU said, adding:

“The National Bank is taking part in building a system of transparent and understandable regulation, which will contribute to the development of fair and efficient circulation of virtual assets.”

According to the regulator, the specified restrictions were necessary for Ukraine in order to stabilize the situation in the foreign exchange market and preserve macro-financial stability.

“Transactions with cryptocurrencies can be used to bypass currency regulation, in particular — as a channel for unproductive capital outflow from the country, which currently poses threats to macro-financial stability,” the NBU representative stated.

Ukraine’s central bank also sees risks of “substitution of the national currency and the emergence of parallel money circulation.” According to the NBU, such risks are especially high during the war and are beyond the effective control of the regulator. “This can pose a threat to the monetary sovereignty of the state,” the NBU spokesperson noted, adding:

“To minimize such risks, especially during the full-scale war, the National Bank will take a strong position on preventing the narrowing of the scope of application of the hryvnia as the only legal means of payment in Ukraine.”

Despite taking a cautious approach to crypto during the war, Ukraine’s central bank is still bullish on technological innovations related to virtual assets. According to the NBU, there are many promises associated with crypto, including better access to financial services, competition in the field of payment services, the attraction of investments, crypto donations and other benefits.

As such, the central bank supports the need to create “civilized conditions for the development of the virtual assets market in Ukraine,” the NBU press office stated.

The latest remarks from the NBU came soon after Yurii Boiko, commissioner of Ukraine’s National Commission on Securities and Stock Market, declared that the war had no impact on the authority’s regulatory stance. According to the official, Ukraine has continued to follow in the footsteps of the European Union concerning digital asset laws.

Payments