Central Bank Digital Currency in India

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced to create central bank digital currency (CBDC). RBI realized that cryptocurrencies can be the trend of payment in the future and expected to adopt the innovation at government level. Originally, RBI banned every domestic entity from adopting cryptocurrencies. RBI aims at centralizing the usage of cryptocurrency in order to well control it. RBI believes that the need for techniques such as Blochchain can prevent CBDC from being used fo money laundering. RBI has established the professional team to investigate the potential issues and feasibility of CBDC.

MUFJ has started the test of its own cryptocurrency – J coin, which is also supported by Japanese central bank. The test involves some merchants and is expected to end by next year. J coin, which is pegged 1:1 to Japanese Yen, can be downloaded and used for P2P transaction and online shopping. The development of this plan is to compete against enormous Chinese mobile payment companies such as Alibaba. Customers can easily transact through their mobile phone with J coin in the future.

Kuwait International Bank (KIB) has launched interactive voice response (IVR) system to thoroughly change the way customer banking. People in Kuwait desire to diversify their risk from only sourcing from oil price volatility. Therefore, more innovative and convenient ways of banking are needed. KIB offers centralized monitoring, queuing, routing and reporting solutions for customers to access to its services via a visual interface.

HSBC has invented $2.3 billion globally in Fintech and enterprise start-ups for more sophisticated development in AI and digital banking. Cooperating with WeChat, which has more than one billion users around the world, HSBC needs to provide more innovative solution for customers since the related demand and preference are getting obvious. HSBC is also one of the first foreign banks allow retail customers to access services via WeChat.

Five European financial institutions include Aareal Bank, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, DZ Bank and NETS Group have taken part in the innovation platform – Plug and Play. Start-ups that are involved now have opportunity to cooperate with these leading institutions in Europe. Through the competition of Plug and Play, the top start-ups are selected to partner with them to integrate new technology with existing banking system.

VPE WertpapierhandelsBank AG (VPE), a German securities trading bank, has become the first bank in German offering cryptocurrency trading service for institutional investors. VPE cooperates with solarisBank, a technology company specializing in digital transaction platform, and enables customers to access to a wallet hosted by the bank.