- A New Boost for Pakistan’s Banks Association on the Blockchain Front
- RBI’s CBDC Achievement
A New Boost for Pakistan’s Banks Association on the Blockchain Front
Regarding overall banking institutions, the Avanza Group and Pakistan Banks Association (PBA) have agreed to work together to create and launch Pakistan’s inaugural national blockchain-driven eKYC banking system.
The State Bank of Pakistan is now working to improve the nation’s anti-money laundering (AML) and terrorist financing (TF) control infrastructure. This endeavor includes the electronic Know Your Customer (KYC) project.
Under the rule of the State Bank of Pakistan, PBA has supervised the project’s planning and management on behalf of the banking sector.
With tightening AML rules, this platform’s rollout is anticipated to improve operational efficiency in partnering banks and customer satisfaction, particularly during the initial registration, which will support access to financial services.
PBA will use the blockchain-based “Consonance” eKYC system from The Avanza Group. Utilizing a decentralized and self-regulatory network enables lenders to standardize and exchange client information with their permission.
All member banking institutions taking part in the project would be able to evaluate their current and potential customers by utilizing the data available on “Consonance” from any other bank; this will act as a support platform for Pakistan’s banking sector.
Consonance is a blockchain-enabled national eKYC framework that controls and unifies national EKYC guidelines and pieces of information among all banking firms within a specified region or country.
RBI’s CBDC Achievement
It has been made clear by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that the launch of the central bank digital currency (CBDC) intends to maintain the existing payment infrastructure. At the G20 summit, RBI deputy governor Rabi Sankar outlined the central bank’s position, stressing that banks and participants in the bond market will continue to play an important role in India’s monetary sector.
The RBI insists that alternative payment methods will be unrestricted despite the CBDC pilot’s success in enrolling over 50,000 users and 5,000 businesses from banks participating since it started in late 2022.
Sankar also addressed concerns by ensuring the digital rupee pilot wasn’t designed to replace the current Negotiated Dealing System – Order Matching (NDS-OM) scheme. Instead, he promised the pilot would keep adding users to draw more definitive findings.
The RBI intends to draw customers by experimenting with different characteristics of the digital rupee. According to Sankar, the RBI wants to sign up 500,000 users in the upcoming quarter, including large banks and as many retailers as feasible, to promote enough usage to form opinions.
Besides working on the wholesale and retail versions of the digital rupee, the RBI also intends to roll out India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in Southeast Asia and Commonwealth nations. In addition, India and Singapore have worked together to link their digital transfer services to improve cross-border payments between the two countries.
The digital rupee attracts interest from Indian businesses, which is anticipated to boost CBDC implementation. In February, the leading retail operator in India, Reliance Retail, announced that it would use QR codes to establish in-store support for the digital rupee.
The director of Reliance Retail, V Subramaniam, referred to the action as a historic endeavor that aligns with the company’s strategic aim of giving consumers influence over their purchasing decisions.
With the growing inclination of Indians to conduct business digitally, he continued, launching the digital rupee would provide customers with an effective and safe additional payment mechanism at their establishments.