New digital financial infrastructure, new regional free trade agreements, and decisive leadership in the emerging sustainability and green agenda bode well for international RMB adoption.

The rapid transformation of domestic and cross-border payments brings new opportunities and challenges for financial institutions.Amid shrinking payment margins, players are rethinking their business models to better monetise data insights and integrate financing options such as “buy now, pay later” (BNPL). Industry experts share their views on the impact of this changing landscape, emerging value propositions, and key technology enablers for future growth

As trials move into actual implementations, global financial markets and monetary systems will be disrupted and transformed.

The mBridge pilot has tested the issuance of over $12 million in central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and payments of over $22 million on bridge. It has resolved long-standing pain points in traditional cross-border payment systems and is rooted in the roadmap for distributed ledger technology (DLT)-based infrastructure, as well as CBDC.

Central banks worldwide increasingly recognise the benefits of wholesale central bank digital currencies (wCBDCs) in making remittances and other cross-border transactions cheaper, faster and safer. Pilot projects set in motion seek to identify opportunities and risks as well as explore the possibility of having shared infrastructure to automate cross-border payments, foreign exchange and settlements.

Digital currencies are revolutionising global finance and erasing borders, and while DeFi and the creator economy drive privacy-focused systems independent of governments, the narrative centers on traditional finance and DeFi convergence

Financial institutions are swiftly adopting blockchain and cryptocurrencies, catalysing regulatory discussions and heralding a significant shift in the global financial system.