Monetary reform

• b'WASHINGTON, May 5, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --The Electronic Transactions Association (ETA) today released its "7 Guiding Principles for CBDC," which should guide the consideration of the creation of a U.S. Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).\nETA believes there is a common set of principles against which any proposed CBDC should be measured.
• "These \'7 Guiding Principles for CBDC\' are designed to evaluate whether the benefits of any proposal outweigh the negatives and significantly enhance the innovative, ubiquitous, and secure payments ecosystem that currently makes access to financial services a reality.
• "\nAs the leading trade association for the digital transactions industry, ETA recommends that these principles guide the creation of any CBDC.\nThe Electronic Transactions Association (ETA) is the global trade association representing more than 500 payments and technology companies.
• ETA members make commerce possible by processing approximately $22.5 trillion annually in purchases worldwide and deploying payments innovation to merchants and consumers.\nView original content to download multimedia: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/eta-releases-7-guiding-principle...\n'

• b'STOCKHOLM, April 28, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Central Banks around the world are evaluating and piloting Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) implementations where offline and private payments are key requirements.
• As Crunchfish Digital Cash solution offer these capabilities the company has decided to pursue a global strategy within CBDC, broadening focus from Sweden and India only.
• Bank of International Settlement acts as a bank for Central Banks and supports Central Banks\' pursuit of monetary and financial stability through international cooperation, where the Offline Payments Workstream is one of such initiatives.
• The presentation outlined a detailed comparison of Crunchfish\'s Digital Cash vs. VISA\'s Offline Payment System for CBDC.

(averages; EUR billions) Source: ECB.Notes: All figures in the table are rounded to the nearest €0.1 billion. Figures in brackets denote the change from the previous review or maintenance period.
Assets (averages; EUR billions)
Other liquidity-based information (averages; EUR billions) Source: ECB.Notes: All figures in the table are rounded to the nearest €0.1 billion. Figures in brackets denote the change from the previous review or maintenance period.
Interest rate developments Source: ECB.Notes: Figures in brackets denote the change from the previous review or maintenance period.

Liquidity provided through monetary policy instruments

The average amount of liquidity provided through monetary policy instruments increased by €395.1 billion to €5,437.7 billion during the review period (see Chart A). Around 68% of the increase is the result of ongoing net purchases under the asset purchase programmes, primarily the PEPP, while the remaining 32% is the result of credit operations, above all the allotment of TLTRO III.6 in December.

Chart A

Evolution of liquidity provided through open market operations and excess liquidity (EUR billions)
• The average amount of liquidity provided through credit operations increased by 125.9 billion during this review period, largely as a result of the settlement of the sixth operation in the TLTRO III programme.
• The average increase of 141.5 billion in the liquidity provided through TLTRO III was partially offset by maturities and/or voluntary early repayments under the TLTRO II programme, as counterparties shifted from the TLTRO II to the TLTRO III.
• On average, maturities and repayments under the TLTRO II programme amounted to 17.9 billion.
• The PELTRO added an extra of 3.9 billion in liquidity.
• The main refinancing operation (MRO) and three-month LTROs continue to play only a marginal role, with the average recourse to both regular refinancing operations decreasing by 1.6 billion to 1.3 billion compared with the previous review period.
• At the same time, outright portfolios increased by 269.2 billion to 3,663.8 billion, due to net purchases under the APP and the PEPP.
• Average holdings in the PEPP amounted to 727.9 billion, representing an increase of 200.6 billion in relation to the average of the previous review period.

Excess liquidity

• Average excess liquidity increased by 413.4 billion to 3,411.4 billion (see Chart A).
• Banks current account holdings in excess of minimum reserve requirements grew by 287.6 billion to 2,850.3 billion while the average recourse to the deposit facility increased by 125.8 billion to 561.2 billion.
• The partial exemption of excess liquidity holdings from negative remuneration at the deposit facility rate under the two-tier system applies only to balances held in the current accounts.
• Banks therefore have an economic incentive to hold reserves in the current account instead of the deposit facility up to the limit of the exemption granted under the two-tier system.
• Balances held in excess of the exempted amount are often left in the deposit facility on account of operational convenience and/or regulatory treatment.

Interest rate developments

• Today Crunchfish announces that its Digital Cash solutions can solve Central Bank Digital Currency, CBDC implementation issues swimmingly easy, without any additional infrastructure.
• Crunchfish's Digital Cash makes it swimmingly easy to implement CBDC, as there is no need for additional infrastructure.
• Central Banks in numerous countries are experimenting with Digital Currency using `tokenized value instruments' that represent physical banknotes in digital form.
• In addition, Digital Cash is also payment services interoperable , cross-borders and cross-schemes, which is key to accelerate CBDC roll-outs and its market acceptance.