This paper explores the economic models associated to different mobile-payment systems. We first present the existing experiences and review the few economic literature on the subject. We then concentrate on the four economic models currently experimented around the world: the operator-centric...

This paper reviews recent developments in online and mobile banking in the United States that provide bank account holders with low-cost interfaces to manage account-to-account electronic money transfers. The paper analyzes the emerging decentralized market in which A2A money transfers are...

This paper synthesizes four lessons from the experiences of six Asian e-money schemes for central banks as they consider adopting central bank digital currency (CBDC): (i) CBDC should embody four attributes: trust, convenience, efficiency, and security; (ii) CBDC service providers can facilitate...

This paper explores the regulation and differences between various digital currencies, including cryptocurrency, stablecoin, central bank digital currency, e-money, virtual currency, and in-game currency. The rise of digital currencies has created a complex ecosystem of financial instruments...

In this paper, we develop a model incorporating the impact of financial inclusion to study the implications of introducing a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC). CBDCs in developing countries (unlike in advanced countries) have the potential to bank large unbanked populations and boost...

Interoperability is the characteristic of a payment service (e.g. digital wallets) to allow its users to pay any person or company, regardless of the financial institution providing services to the payer or payee. On October 7, 2022, the Central Reserve Bank of Peru (BCRP) issued the Payment...

This paper provides a contextual analysis of the adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender in El Salvador. First, we outline the historical context and the political situation of the period 2019- 24 that serve as context for the passage and implementation of the Bitcoin law (Decree No. 57). We...

The properties of money commonly referenced in the economics literature were originally identified by Jevons (1876) and Menger (1892) in the late 1800s and were intended to describe physical currencies, such as commodity money, metallic coins, and paper bills. In the digital era, many...

The growing literature on Bitcoin can be divided in two groups. One performs an economic analysis of Bitcoin focusing on its monetary characteristics. The other one looks takes a financial look at the price of Bitcoin. Interestingly, both of these groups have not given much more than passing...

We employ a monetary model with endogenous search and random consumption preferences to consider the extent to which governments can ban bitcoin. We define a ban as a policy whereby government agents refuse to accept bitcoin and mete out punishments to private agents caught using it. After...