Emerging technologies like Blockchain have sent Financial Institutions into a frenzy to try and adopt them lest they get left behind.

These same entities have tried to integrate their legacy-ridden payment systems in a bid to achieve seamless operations. The World Bank has recently released a dossier which seems to indicate that they share the same sentiment that Blockchain is, indeed, ready for financial inclusion.

The 70-page report titled – “Payment aspects of financial inclusion in the fintech era” -released by The Bank of International Settlements (BIS) has highlighted various underlying crypto and blockchain services such as Stablecoins as well as CBDCs.

The dossier Emphasizes how the accelerated pace of innovation has resulted in the “Era of Fintech.” But this has not come without its challenges.

“However, it is not a panacea and there are risks that need to be managed”

The report seems to be an extension of the 2016 report – Payment aspects of financial inclusion (PAFI) – which was the brainchild of the joint study of the World Bank and Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI).

The more recent BIS study aligns with the PAFI report into a much modern scenario to include Blockchain concepts.

In the report, the World Bank outlined combining Distributed Ledger Tech (DLT’s), stablecoins, CBDCs and payment systems with cutting edge technologies such as Big Data analysis and cloud computing.

This idea was summed up by the PAFI Fintech wheel, highlighting various milestones that may be instrumental to payment aspects of financial inclusion.

Citing Libra, the World Bank was able to show that stablecoins had indeed spooked Central Banks, resulting in a CBDC rat race. Mostly because they want control over cross border payments. However, none of these CBDCs have since gone live (yet).

There are concerns, as a recent BIS study reveals, that none of the CBDC projects scope really zero in on cross border payments.

This lack of precision is in spite of several central banks touting their CBDC’s as solutions to faster, cheaper and more secure cross border payments.

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