Fintech
Fintech Benchmarks 2023 report – the future of money
Most central banks continue work on CBDC, while payments innovation again tops research agenda
This year the tension between new forms of digital money, and who has the authority to issue it, came to the fore of the Fintech Benchmarks 2023. Even though payment innovation and CBDC were the top areas of research efforts, and keeping up with regulating the use of new fintech products and services is the top technology challenge, only around half of central banks said they have a fintech strategy, and fewer still have defined approaches to suptech and regtech.
Charts
Tech challenges
Central bank fintech departments say keeping up with new developments is their number one challenge, though this is much more commonly reported as a challenge in emerging market jurisdictions. Adapting legacy systems and maintaining cyber security are the joint second place concerns.
For the full breakdown, use the benchmarking service’s interactive charts to explore the data.
Fintech data
View the full breakdown of responses to the Fintech Benchmarks.
Previous years
Fintech 2023
Fintech 2022
Fintech 2021
Why fear, paranoia and distrust swirl around CBDCs
Populists and conspiracy theorists are exacerbating public concern about retail CBDCs. What can central banks do about it?
Fintech Benchmarks 2023 – presentation
Specialist Joasia E. Popowicz discusses CBDCs, cyber security, AI/ML in regtech, suptech and cloud computing
Towards legal CBDCs
Officials at the Bank of Thailand and Bank of Jamaica on how their CBDC design choices interact with the law
Fintech Benchmarks 2023 – executive summary
Most central banks continue work on CBDC, while payments innovation again tops research agenda
Fintech Benchmarks 2023 report – the future of money
Most central banks continue work on CBDC, while payments innovation again tops research agenda
EME fintech teams have wider mandates
Few chief fintech officers recruited by central banks
Regulating fintech is biggest tech challenge, central banks say
Benefits include financial inclusion, cost reduction and service efficiency
Central banks split on machine learning, AI technologies
Respondents optimise features despite drags in data quality, skills gap and algorithmic challenges
Location, security and privacy are top cloud concerns
Richer economies more likely to domesticate and operate hybrid servers
Cloud used for business continuity and advancing computation
Most institutions rely on third parties for services
Retail CBDC work more common than wholesale
Most jurisdictions still lack a legal mandate to issue a CBDC
Central banks are bullish on environmental features of CBDC
A minority of respondents’ jurisdictions prohibit crypto assets