The Future of Payments

The 2020 pandemic has accelerated the development of a complex global digital economy and the sophisticated digital payments systems upon which it will rely. To many, this offers the exciting prospect of cheaper, more efficient and more secure transactions on a global scale. To others, it spells the loss of personal control, privacy and sovereignty. Managing this transition smoothly and preventing disruption of the global financial infrastructure presents a series of massive challenges for consumers, the private sector, governments, central banks and other influential policy-makers.

It is likely that the future digital payments landscape will comprise of a complex tapestry of multiple private and fiat currencies with profound implications for regulation and supervision, and cross-border and domestic interoperability. There will be critical questions about the balance of cooperation and competition between public and private sectors, and about relationships between nation-states and their currencies.

This report by OMFIF looks in detail at the next evolution of payments. It examines how the advent of cryptocurrencies and distributed ledger technologies has spurred a wave of research and exploration by governments and central banks.