| Modernized payment systems
The advent of electronic payments disrupted the financial landscape. FinTechs such as Zelle, PayPal and Venmo have disrupted the payment space, but these options offer faster solutions and don't take place in real-time, instead requiring between 1 and 3 business days.
To initiate an instant transfer through Venmo (which generally happens within 30 minutes), there is a 1.5% fee. Such transactions only work with U.S. bank accounts or Visa/Mastercard debit cards, and the money stays in Venmo until the transfer is initiated.
Not to mention that many FinTech providers commonly use third-party providers to collect users’ personal data, and that information can be sold for research and marketing purposes.
So how close are we to a real-time, 24/7, 365-day payment system that is settled instantaneously?
Is the answer crypto or CBDCs?
The quest to solve the instant payment, cross-border issue has commercial banks, central banks and disruptors looking for solutions.
Central bank digital currencies—frequently referred to as CBDCs—are being investigated by countries around the world. As central banks begin to launch digital versions of their fiat currencies, what are the implications?
A recent survey by the consulting firm Accenture, which culled responses from more than 200 executives, showed that in North America, 45% of participants identified CBDCs as being the single greatest force disrupting payments.
In that region, more than twice as many banks singled out these digital fiat currencies as disrupting payments as did respondents who pointed to growing use of cryptocurrencies.
At the same time, CBDCs come with privacy issues, and they could create competition between central and commercial banks. | 