Central banks of Singapore, Australia, South Africa, Malaysia in multi-CBDC trials for cross-border payments

The Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub, the Reserve Bank of Australia, Bank Negara Malaysia, Monetary Authority of Singapore, and South African Reserve Bank will join forces to test the use of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) for international settlements.

Led by the Innovation Hub's Singapore Centre, Project Dunbar aims to develop prototype shared platforms for cross-border transactions using multiple CBDCs. These multi-CBDC platforms will allow financial institutions to transact directly with each other in the digital currencies issued by participating central banks, eliminating the need for intermediaries and cutting the time and cost of transactions.

The project will work with multiple partners to develop technical prototypes on different distributed ledger technology platforms. It will also explore different governance and operating designs that would enable central banks to share CBDC infrastructures, benefitting from the collaboration between public and private sector experts in different jurisdictions and areas of operation.

Project Dunbar's work will explore the international dimension of CBDC design and support the efforts of the G20 roadmap for enhancing cross-border payments. Its results, expected to be published in early 2022, will inform the development of future platforms for global and regional settlements. Technical prototypes of the shared platforms, developed in collaboration with different technology partners, will be demonstrated at the Singapore FinTech Festival in November 2021.

Calypso Technology and AxiomSL merger choose a new name: Adenza

Adenza is unique in the industry, offering modern, fully integrated solutions which can be delivered on-premise or on-cloud. The breadth of Adenza’s offering allows customers across the banking, capital markets, treasury, enterprise risk, regulatory reporting and compliance verticals to streamline end-to-end workflows and achieve greater operational efficiencies.

Adenza is dually headquartered in London and New York City, with nearly 2,000 employees, more than 60,000 users, and a customer base spanning the world’s largest financial institutions.

Apple allows APPs to point away from their payment system

On 1 September Apple announced an update coming to the App Store that closes an investigation by the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC). The update will allow developers of “reader” apps to include an in-app link to their website for users to set up or manage an account. While the agreement was made with the JFTC, Apple will apply this change globally to all reader apps on the store. Reader apps provide previously purchased content or content subscriptions for digital magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music, and video.

To ensure a safe and seamless user experience, the App Store’s guidelines require developers to sell digital services and subscriptions using Apple’s in-app payment system. Because developers of reader apps do not offer in-app digital goods and services for purchase, Apple agreed with the JFTC to let developers of these apps share a single link to their website to help users set up and manage their accounts.

Before the change goes into effect in early 2022, Apple will update its guidelines and review process to make sure users of reader apps continue to have a safe experience on the App Store. While in-app purchases through the App Store commerce system remain the safest and most trusted payment methods for users, Apple will also help developers of reader apps protect users when they link them to an external website to make purchases.