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Bitcoin-as-Currency Experiment Costs El Salvador 1% of Its GDP, IMF Reports

Published on february 4, 2022

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is still on the offensive when it comes to El Salvador’s use of bitcoin as a legal tender, estimating the cost of implementing the program at 1% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). And that’s not counting the cost of the 1,801 bitcoins purchased by President Nayib Bukele. As […]

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Argentina Central Bank Governor: FinTechs Boost Financial Inclusion

Published on february 4, 2022

In an interview with the Buenos Aires Times on Friday (Feb. 4), Argentina Central Bank Governor Miguel Ángel Pesce applauded FinTechs for serving an underbanked population, but also cautioned that they were not financial institutions. Pesce noted that it’s been “very important to make the extension of the accounts system more dynamic, reaching sectors which […]

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Latin America’s Digital Payments Transformation Passes the ‘Grandma Test’

Published on february 2, 2022

To get a sense of the inroads digital payments have made in Latin America, Aron Schwarzkopf, CEO of Kushki, told Karen Webster: Just use the “grandma test.” All manner of younger, tech-savvy early adopters, spurred by the pandemic, have moved online to use apps and digital wallets to transact. But an increasing number of older […]

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BigCommerce Moves Into Germany, Mexico and Spain

Published on january 31, 2022

Open Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) eCommerce platform BigCommerce on Monday (Jan. 31) broadened its reach into Germany, Mexico and Spain, allowing local merchants to grow their direct-to-consumer (D2C) and business-to-business (B2B) platforms around the world, a company announcement said. BigCommerce’s expansion into three new countries also adds omnichannel capabilities in those regions. The additions follow BigCommerce’s launch […]

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IMF’s Silence Signals El Salvador Needs to Abandon Bitcoin to Secure $1.3B Loan

Published on january 28, 2022

El Salvador is still asking the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $1.3 billion loan, and the IMF is still asking El Salvador to drop bitcoin as legal tender. That’s one fairly obvious takeaway from the Tuesday (Jan. 25) statement the IMF released on its ongoing negotiations with the Central American nation, which embraced bitcoin […]

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ICICB Group Plans Digital Bank for Brazil

Published on january 28, 2022

Dubai’s ICICB Group wants to become a player in Brazil’s burgeoning digital banking space, the financial services company announced in a news release Friday (Jan. 28). “This new phase of innovation and reliability will support the nation’s top institutions and industries to promote business,” the company said. “The public will benefit from easy, fast and […]

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Revolut to Offer US Consumers Free Remittances to Mexico

Published on january 28, 2022

Global finance app Revolut has announced that U.S. customers can transfer money to Mexican bank accounts, according to an emailed press release today (Jan. 28). The service will be offered fee-free and would be done in up to 30 minutes. Revolut has been working on improving the U.S. methods to send money to home countries. […]

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Paying the World Should Be As Easy as Sending a WhatsApp Message

Published on january 28, 2022

“Pay the world” is the theme of the day and for Thunes CEO Christophe Bourbier, in an ideal world, consumers anywhere in the world can leverage technology to make payments as simple and as fast as using an instant messaging platform. “When we say pay the world, we would like any payment, not just payments […]

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Central Bank Aims to Connect $1.5B Sitting Idle in Banks to Brazilians

Published on january 25, 2022

The Central Bank of Brazil is introducing a program to connect the R$8 ($1.5 billion) sitting idle in financial institutions to the Brazilians who are entitled to the funds, the Rio Times reported. Previously there wasn’t an easy way to access these resources until the central bank intervened with a specific program. The first stage […]

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El Salvador Turns to DeFi, Uses Bitcoin-Backed Microloans to Fight Loan Sharks

Published on january 21, 2022

Saying more than half of El Salvador’s businesses are funded by loan sharks, the government of El Salvador plans to offer $10 million in bitcoin-backed loans. President Nayin Bukele’s strategy of making bitcoin a legal tender in the country and buying tens of millions of dollars’ worth of BTC has alarmed the International Monetary Fund […]

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