There are increasingly many digital alternatives to physical cash as basic means of payment, many of these offered by non-financial private sector actors. While such a trend towards a cashless society brings the convenience of digital payments to users and can encourage innovation in financial...

Portuguese abstract: ABSTRATO: Com o avanço de blockchain e smart contracts, bem como constantes anúncios de projetos de grande escala utilizando estas ferramentas, parece cada vez mais provável que diversos aspectos da sociedade e economia passem a adotar estas tecnologias e, sendo...

Europe's high pre-existing level of financial development can partly account for the relatively smaller reach of fintech payment and lending activities compared to some other regions. But fintech activity is growing rapidly. Digital payment schemes are expanding within countries, although...

This paper analyzes a group of 755 firms, with aggregate indebtedness of US$6.2 trillion, to assess the solvency risks and liquidity needs facing the U.S. corporate sector based on projections of net income, availability and cost of funding, and debt servicing flows under different stress test...

The revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) mandated every bank in the European Union (EU) to provide application programming interfaces (APIs) that allow every licensed company (as well as other banks) to access information gathered on customers’ payment accounts and then order payment...

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System has engaged the public in its consideration of a USD Central Bank Digital Currency (USD CBDC). The Board has framed USD CBDC issues principally around payment market access and efficiency, tending to overlook questions CBDC raises about the...

Concluding thoughts and outlook for the future of the technologies affording digital currencies, cryptocurrencies, blockchain and smart contracts. For Chapter 1 (Introduction), see https://ssrn.com/abstract=3135021. For Chapter 2 (Means of Exchange: Ever-present Competition), see...

The simultaneous unwinding of leveraged positions can trigger financial market turbulence. Although balance-sheet measures of leverage are available, it is useful to construct a measure of leverage that incorporates both on- and off-balance-sheet activities. This paper provides measures of...

This paper analyzes whether and how central banks can use currency options to lower exchange rate volatility and maintain (implicit) target zones in foreign exchange markets. It argues that selling rather than buying options will result in market makers dynamically hedging their long option...

This paper tests for evidence of contagion between the financial markets of Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Korea, and the Philippines. Cross-country correlations among currencies and sovereign spreads are found to increase significantly during the crisis period, whereas the equity market...