Executive summary The competitive battle in payments has moved from the checkout to the money itself. Canada’s six largest banks (RBC,TD,BMO,Scotiabank,CIBC and National Bank) have announced a joint project to build shared Canadian-dollar tokenised deposit infrastructure. The initial phase will focus on transfers between participating banks rather than consumer wallets. There is no launch date yet,but the project may later include other deposit-taking institutions. For merch

The ECB launched Pontes on 21 September 2026 to let wholesale transactions in tokenised assets settle in central bank money. In plain English, Pontes connects blockchain-style market infrastructure to the Eurosystem’s existing payment systems. It is not a retail CBDC. It is not an ECB cryptocurrency. It is public settlement infrastructure for banks, market infrastructures and institutional tokenised markets. The strategic importance is larger than the launch itself. Europe is

Meta title: Stablecoins, Regulation and the WTO Payments Gap Meta description: Stablecoins account for about 3% of international payments. The WTO says fragmented regulation, not technology, is holding them back. Suggested slug:stablecoins-wto-regulation-not-technology The World Trade Organization has put a number on the stablecoin paradox: despite rapid technical progress and a roughly 35-fold increase in cross-border stablecoin payment use between 2020 and mid-2024, stablec

SEO title: Visa and Nium’s 24/7 Stablecoin Settlement Pilot: Why It Matters Meta description: Visa and Nium’s MAS BLOOM pilot could move cross-border settlement beyond business days. Discover the treasury, interoperability and risk implications. Suggested slug:the-payments-calendar-is-breaking-visa-nium-24-7-stablecoin-settlement-pilot Primary keyword: 24/7 settlement Secondary keywords: stablecoin payments, cross-border payments, payment success rate, AI payments, AI payment