This paper summarises the outcome of an analysis of stablecoins undertaken by the ECB Crypto-Assets Task Force. At the time of writing, the stablecoin debate lacks a common taxonomy and unambiguous terminology. This paper applies a definition that distinguishes stablecoins from existing forms of...

This paper summarises the outcomes of the analysis of the ECB Crypto-Assets Task Force. First, it proposes a characterisation of crypto-assets in the absence of a common definition and as a basis for the consistent analysis of this phenomenon. Second, it analyses recent developments in the...

Digital financial services and more importantly, mobile money, have become an important financial innovation to advance financial inclusion in developing and emerging economies. While digital financial services have improved the lives of many Kenyans, to the growing betting segment of the Kenyan...

A bona fide currency functions as a medium of exchange, a store of value, and a unit of account, but bitcoin largely fails to satisfy these criteria. Bitcoin has achieved only scant consumer transaction volume, with an average well below one daily transaction for the few merchants who accept it....

China is well-placed to avoid the so-called “middle-income trap” and to continue to converge towards the more advanced economies, even though growth is likely to slow from near double-digit rates in the first decade of this millennium to around 7% at the 2020 horizon. However, in order to...

Crypto assets' partial money-like use promotes toxic developments in the financial system. Even though crypto assets might be regarded as close substitutes to traditional money, we show that they lack important functions of money. Traditional fiat money requires several interacting institutions...

Since mid-2014, four central banks in Europe have moved their policy rates into negative territory. These unconventional moves were by and large implemented within existing operational frameworks. Yet the modalities of implementation have important implications for the costs of holding central...

Large-value payment systems (LVPS) often have a tiered structure where only a limited number of banks have direct access to these systems and every other institution accesses the system through agency arrangements with the direct participants. As such, a high degree of tiering is often perceived...

Large-value payment systems (LVPS) often have a tiered structure where only a limited number of banks have direct access to these systems and every other institution accesses the system through agency arrangements with the direct participants. As such, a high degree of tiering is often perceived...