Payment and settlement systems and services have become vital components of the economic life of contemporary societies. Over the last decades, they have gone through several waves of reforms that have changed the landscape of the national payments system (NPS) in virtually every country in the...

Over the years, the demand for seamless and inexpensive cross-border payments has grown in parallel with growth in international e-commerce, remittances and tourism. Yet, cross-border payments have not kept pace with the intensive modernization that has characterized domestic payment services...

In recent years, due to innovations in technology, the concept of digital currency has emerged out of the desire of some private entities to replicate specific properties of cash in the digital space. Digital currencies have been issued in various electronic formats and value propositions, and...

This report is based on a study of the costs of retail payments in Kosovo, using a methodology (A Practical Guide for Measuring Retail Payment Costs) developed by the World Bank's Payment System Development Group (PSDG), part of the Finance, Competitiveness, and Innovation Global Practice. The...

This report aims to deepen the understanding of barriers to and incentives for the acceptance and use of electronic payments, from the perspective of micro, small and medium retailers (merchants). Developing and accelerating acceptance of electronic payments by these merchants is essential to...

This report is based on a study of the costs and savings of retail payments in Albania using a methodology (A Practical Guide for Measuring Retail Payment Costs) developed by the World Bank's Payment Systems Development Group, part of the Financial Inclusion, Infrastructure, and Access at the...

Somalia's economy grew by 2.3 percent in 2017. The economy remains vulnerable to recurrent shocks. Between 2013 and 2017, real annual GDP growth averaged 2.5 percent. Growth occurred despite adverse weather conditions that severely reduced agricultural output in late 2016 and early 2017. For...

The report discusses key policy issues that enable and constrain digital savings market development and offers policy considerations within the context of the G20's High-Level Principles for Digital Financial Inclusion. Based on current market observations, three policy considerations seem most...

The main objective of this technical note is to evaluate the institutional and implementation framework needed for strengthening payment systems as a core element of delivering social protection and labor (SPL) benefits to the poor, around which targeting, identification and monitoring systems...