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May 5, 2026
On the web
The Impact of Stablecoins on the International Monetary and Financial System
BIS
"Widespread use of stablecoins could have an impact on the international monetary and financial system, particularly for emerging market and developing economies. Using the framework of international currency functions to analyse their effect, we argue that stablecoins are most likely to affect private sector store of value and medium of exchange roles, particularly in economies facing macroeconomic instability. Given that approximately 98% of stablecoins' value is dollar-denominated, they are likely to initially reinforce existing currency hierarchies. We develop three scenarios to explore the range of potential outcomes."
April 29, 2026
On the web
Digitalisation and Innovation - Opportunities and Risks for Financial Health
BIS
"Digital innovation is enhancing access to payments, credit, savings and insurance. But these benefits are emerging alongside new vulnerabilities: a global surge in scams and fraud, greater over indebtedness among some digital borrowers and the use of ill-suited investment products. This highlights the role of financial authorities in enhancing regulatory and supervisory frameworks to mitigate emerging risks, providing public infrastructures and services, and enabling responsible innovation that supports financial health outcomes."
April 27, 2026
On the web
BIS: Tap a Card, Pay by Phone but Cash Still Holds Its Own
BIS
"The use of cashless payments continues to increase globally. Credit transfers are the fastest growing cashless payment method in emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs), while the growth in cashless payments in advanced economies (AEs) is mainly driven by growth in card payments.Fast payments are gaining ground and are a key driver behind the growth of credit transfers in EMDEs. Fast payments are increasingly used for small-value payments in both EMDEs and AEs."
April 23, 2026
On the web
The Future of Financial Messaging: Navigating the ISO 20022 Migration Journey
BIS
"The implementation of ISO 20022 addresses inefficiencies in cross-border payments by enabling structured data, reducing message truncation and enhancing straight-through processing. The ISO 20022 migration journey spans pre-migration, migration and post-migration phases. Premigration includes stakeholder engagement and system readiness, while migration focuses on cutovers and reconciliation. Post-migration ensures stability, monitoring and long-term benefits through robust governance."
April 20, 2026
On the web
Global Cooperation on Stablecoins Critically Important, BIS Says
BIS
"The head of the Bank for International Settlements has made a renewed call for international cooperation on how stablecoins are used, describing it as vital to prevent severe market fragmentation. The central bankers’ central bank, as the BIS is known, has long raised concerns about stablecoins - a type of cryptocurrency usually pegged 1:1 to the U.S. dollar."
April 2, 2026
On the web
BIS, IMF Researchers Find Stablecoins Already Impact Traditional FX Rates
Ledger Insights
"A new working paper from the Bank for International Settlements and the International Monetary Fund provides the first causal evidence that stablecoin activity is spilling over into traditional foreign exchange (FX) markets. The effects include depreciating local currencies and raising the cost of dollar funding for banks and corporates that have never touched crypto. The paper uses daily data on four major USD pegged stablecoins traded against 27 fiat currencies across 64 centralized exchanges from January 2021 to November 2025."
March 26, 2026
On the web
In Data We Trust? Emerging Policy and Supervisory Approaches to AI Data Use in Financial Services
BIS
"Data play a critical role in the transformation of the financial sector through artificial intelligence (AI). While challenges in data management are not new, they pose significant barriers to the wider adoption of advanced AI systems, such as generative AI (gen AI). Key concerns include data privacy, quality and security, which are further intensified by third-party dependencies and market concentration among major service providers. Effectively managing data-related risks is essential to ensure that AI adoption in financial services fosters innovation while upholding trust, resilience and financial stability."
March 11, 2026
On the web
Cross-Border Payment Technologies: Innovations and Challenges
BIS
"Cross-border payments (XBP), particularly remittances and retail transactions, remain more costly, slower, less accessible, and less transparent than domestic payments. The continued inefficient XBP arrangements, in contrast to progress made in domestic payments using new technologies and innovative models, reflect that private actors alone cannot overcome the many market failures that hinder XBP."
March 3, 2026
On the web
From Cash to Crypto: Towards a Consistent Regulatory Approach to Illicit Payments
BIS
"The rapid evolution of cryptoassets, including stablecoins, and retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) has led to changes in regulatory frameworks to incorporate them. The options beyond bank deposits and cash calls for an analysis of the effectiveness of anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism regimes across different payment instruments. This paper introduces a framework to assess the effects of AML/CFT frameworks, with a focus on differences in design between instruments, and the role of intermediaries."
February 27, 2026
On the web
Harmonised ISO 20022 Data Requirements for Enhancing Cross-Border Payments
BIS
"The CPMI's harmonised ISO 20022 data requirements for cross-border payments (harmonisation requirements) are a key milestone under the G20 roadmap for enhancing cross-border payments. ISO 20022, an international financial messaging standard, enables more consistent and structured data, supporting the objectives of faster, cheaper, more accessible, and transparent cross-border payments. Variability in ISO 20022 implementation, however, could limit its benefits, making alignment crucial to achieving the roadmap's objectives."
February 4, 2026
On the web
Project Fusse: Exploring Flexible, Scalable and Secure Settlement Engines
BIS
"This report details the findings from Project FuSSE (Fully Scalable Settlement Engine), a proof-of-concept exploring how a modular, microservices-based architecture could support the design of settlement systems that could scale under sustained growth and stress conditions, adapt to change, and strengthen security through quantum readiness and cryptographic agility. The project demonstrated technical feasibility while highlighting significant operational trade-offs that must be carefully managed."
January 29, 2026
On the web
BIS International Banking Statistics and Global Liquidity Indicators at End-September 2025
BIS
"Global cross-border bank claims expanded by $832 billion in the third quarter of 2025, reaching $45 trillion. The $730 billion Q3 2025 increase in cross-border bank credit was led by lending to borrowers in the United States ($284 billion); non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) were a prominent counterparty globally, especially those in the United States ($157 billion)."
January 26, 2026
On the web
The Financial Stability Implications of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Finance
BIS
"Remarks by Mr Tao Zhang, BIS Chief Representative for Asia and the Pacific, at International Financial Week, in conjunction with the Asian Financial Forum (AFF), Hong Kong, 26 January 2026."
January 7, 2026
On the web
Financing the AI Boom: From Cash Flows to Debt
BIS
"Investment related to artificial intelligence (AI) is surging – both in nominal amounts and as a share of GDP – and currently accounts for a substantial share of economic growth. The size of anticipated investment needs will require firms to shift the source of financing from operating cash flows to debt, with private credit playing a rapidly increasing role. While macroeconomic and financial stability risks from the AI boom appear moderate, the boom's sustainability hinges on AI firms meeting high earnings expectations. The fact that equity prices have run far ahead of debt market pricing underscores this tension."
December 15, 2025
On the web
Enhancing Cross-Border Payments: State of Play and Way Forward
BIS
"The G20 Roadmap for enhancing cross-border payments has created significant momentum. Most international policy actions are completed, providing a solid foundation for addressing persistent cross-border payment challenges and fostering a more inclusive global payments ecosystem. However, it is unlikely that the end-2027 targets envisaged by the G20 will be achieved on time, and improvements in outcomes for end users have so far been modest."
December 1, 2025
On the web
How Deposits Can Harness Tokenisation
BIS
"Tokenisation has challenged the way we think about money and promises a major leap in how the financial system functions. Understanding the technology behind tokenisation, together with the opportunities and risks it presents, is crucial. Tokenisation introduces the possibility of creating two distinct worlds: private permissioned platforms, which are regulated and governed by trusted entities, and public permissionless platforms, which operate in open, decentralised environments with limited oversight and greater risks."
October 24, 2025
On the web
Stablecoin-Related Yields: Some Regulatory Approaches
BIS
"Some cryptoasset service providers (CASPs) offer yield-bearing products based on payment stablecoins, even though these stablecoins are not inherently designed to generate on-chain returns to holders. Yield generation often involves re-lending to borrowers, margin pools, arbitrage/derivatives collateral or facilitating their use in decentralised finance (DeFi) lending protocols. In other cases, yields are provided through loyalty programmes that are directly funded by CASPs.These practices may blur the lines between payment instruments and investment products."
October 10, 2025
On the web
The Use of Artificial Intelligence for Policy Purposes
BIS
"The report examines how central banks, financial regulators and supervisory authorities are using AI for policy purposes. They regularly work with vast data sets and complex decision-making processes to safeguard monetary and financial stability and ensure the integrity of payment systems. New, advanced AI methods – including large language models that power generative AI – have created new opportunities to boost efficiency and effective policymaking."
October 8, 2025
On the web
Pricing in Fast Payments: A Practical and Theoretical Overview
BIS
"Fast payment systems (FPS) enable the instant transfer and availability of funds on a 24/7 basis, offering an alternative to cash and payment cards. While FPS adoption is growing globally, a key open question is how fast payments should be priced. Pricing schemes in FPS need to balance the competing goals of enhancing usage and incentivising the participation of payment service providers (PSPs)."
September 4, 2025
On the web
Project Keystone: Unlocking Data Analytics for ISO 20022 Payments
BIS
"Project Keystone developed a standardised data analytics platform focused on ISO 20022 data. As part of the project, two modules have been developed. The first addressed the complexities of handling the ISO 20022 data structure and the associated data storage requirements, while the second provided analysis based on the data. Keystone could become an off-the-shelf component that payment system operators could integrate into their own systems to unlock the value of the richer payments data."
June 9, 2025
On the web
Project Hertha: Identifying Financial Crime Patterns in Real-Time Retail Payment Systems
BIS
"Protecting payment systems from financial crime, while upholding user privacy, is an important challenge in delivering the future of payments. Building on the findings from Project Aurora, BIS Innovation Hub's Project Hertha explored how transaction analytics could help identify financial crime patterns in real-time retail payment systems, while using the minimum set of data points."
May 30, 2025
On the web
BIS: Digital Fraud
BIS
"The ongoing digitalisation of finance brings numerous benefits, such as increased efficiency, convenience, financial inclusion, transparency and quicker responses to crises. However, it also introduces significant risks to bank soundness and financial stability. One such risk is digital fraud."
May 29, 2025
On the web
Regulating and Supervising Cross-Border Payment Service Providers
BIS
"Advances in digital technology are playing a key role in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of transferring funds across borders. New service providers supplying more delivery channels based on new technologies offer consumers access to more convenient, cheaper and faster options for conducting transactions, such as paying bills, purchasing goods and services, and transferring cash to others."
May 15, 2025
On the web
Central Banks Prepare for a Tokenized Future
Ledger Insights
"Imagine a financial world where every transaction, from billion-dollar treasury purchases to retail payments, exists entirely as digital tokens. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub aren’t just imagining this scenario, they’re actively preparing for it through Project Pine."
May 14, 2025
On the web
Project Pine: Central Bank Open Market Operations With Smart Contracts
BIS
"Project Pine is a joint research study by the New York Fed's New York Innovation Center and the BIS Innovation Hub Swiss Centre that explores if and how central banks can implement monetary policy in a potential future state where the financial sector widely adopts tokenisation in wholesale markets."
April 24, 2025
On the web
Project Meridian FX Shows Possibility of Cross-Border Linkages for FX Transactions Between Wholesale Payment Infrastructures
BIS
"Project Meridian FX proves that wholesale payment infrastructures, such as real-time gross settlement (RTGS) systems, can be interoperable via new technologies for FX transactions. The joint project between the Bank for International Settlements, Bank of England, Bank of France, Bank of Italy, Deutsche Bundesbank and European Central Bank explored synchronising foreign exchange (FX) transactions. It demonstrated that FX transactions could be settled across jurisdictions and different types of infrastructures."
April 17, 2025
On the web
Leveraging Tokenisation for Payments and Financial Transactions
bis
"This report by the Consultative Group on Innovation and the Digital Economy (CGIDE) discusses theoretical and real-world use cases of tokenisation, which include initiatives run by the Central Bank of Brazil and the Central Bank of Colombia, and private sector-led initiatives discussed within the CGIDE during 2023-24. In addition to use cases and progress to date, the report also explores some preconditions and other considerations for tokenisation."
March 25, 2025
On the web
And So We Pay: More Digital and Faster, With Cash Still in Play
BIS
"The use of cashless payments continues to increase. In particular, the use of credit transfers and e-money has grown, especially in emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs). Fast payments are gaining further ground and a key driver of the growing use of credit transfers in many EMDEs. Fast payments are often associated with less cash in circulation, and with more and smaller card payments."
February 20, 2025
On the web
Interlinking Fast Payment Systems to Enhance Cross-Border Payments
BIS
"Emerging markets and developing economies have made considerable progress in fast payment adoption, laying the foundation for interlinking at the regional and international levels – thus enhancing cross-border payments."
February 13, 2025
On the web
Project Rialto: Improving Instant Cross-Border Payments Using Central Bank Money Settlement
BIS
"The retail cross-border payments market is valued at more than $800 billion of transactions per year, and is growing. Despite this, retail cross-border transactions lag domestic ones in terms of cost, speed, access and transparency because of the complex processes they involve."