The payment system is one of the mechanisms essential to the working of an exchange economy. Over the last decade, central banks have been determined to improve their payment systems to harmonise and reduce risk, and in Europe to anticipate their future interconnection in the TARGET system. This book provides the analytic framework for an informed policy debate on the implications for monetary policy.
Payments and financial market infrastructures are vital components of modern economies, yet they have often been overlooked by economists. However, any economic exchange, including financial market transactions, is matched by a payment leg, and the safety, efficiency, and immediacy of the payment, and the problem of linking the two legs of the transaction (“delivery-vs-payment”), remain universal challenges. The consequences of inefficiencies or interruptions in payment and settlement systems have immediate and significant impacts on the real economy. Moreover, payments and financial market infrastructures are also a matter of strategic importance for nation-states, and being excessively dependent on foreign providers has been proven to be a significant risk, as they can be “weaponized." This book provides a concise yet thorough introduction to payments and financial market infrastructures, exploring various types of risks, retail payments, payment systems, cross-border payments, central counterparties, FX operations, and central securities depositories. The final chapter investigates payment innovations, including unbacked crypto-assets (e.g. Bitcoin), stablecoins, and central bank digital currencies. The text outlines key activities and risk management frameworks, as well as examining the operational mechanics of different payment systems. The book emphasizes the importance of understanding the nature of transfer of financial claims and liabilities through the process of payment and settlement, providing financial account representations of payments wherever useful. The book concludes that the payment and financial market infrastructure space has been shaken by recent innovations, which are expected to lead to seismic shifts in payment technology, practices, and market structures.
"This book is designed to provide the reader with an insight into the main concepts involved in the handling of payments, securities and derivatives and the organisation and functioning of the market infrastructure concerned. Emphasis is placed on the general principles governing the functioning of the relevant systems and processes and the presentation of the underlying economic, business, legal, institutional, organisational and policy issues. The book is aimed at decision-makers, practitioners, lawyers and academics wishing to acquire a deeper understanding of market infrastructure issues. It should also prove useful for students with an interest in monetary and financial issues."--Introduction (Pg. 20, para 8).
Efficient and stable payments systems are of fundamental importance in maintaining an orderly international monetary system. Major disruptions of national and international payments systems would have highly adverse effects on international trade, capital flows, and real activity. A key issue--now being addressed by authorities in a number of major countries--is whether existing institutional arrangements need to be modified in order to reduce the liquidity and credit risks that have arisen as a result of the expansion of international capital flows and the growing integration of major financial markets. This paper examines the nature of these risks and the policies that are being implemented to manage or curb them.
The payment system is one of the mechanisms essential to the working of an exchange economy. Over the last decade, central banks have been determined to improve their payment systems to harmonise and reduce risk, and in Europe to anticipate their future interconnection in the TARGET system. This book provides the analytic framework for an informed policy debate on the implications for monetary policy.
Properly designed wholesale payments system can make a significant contribution to enhancing market discipline in the financial sector, reducing the risk of systemic disturbance and permitting a less extensive safety net for financial institutions. The objective of these reforms has been to achieve a reduction of the credit risk associated with the growth in intraday credit exposures that arises in net settlement systems and in real-time gross systems when the central bank provides daylight overdrafts. Intraday payments-related credit in net settlement systems has been reduced by restructuring payment systems into real-time gross settlement systems with collateralized overdrafts, while in the existing real-time gross settlement systems, the risk-abatement program currently in effect has taken the form of caps and charges on uncollateralized daylight credit.
Provides an in-depth overview of the Federal Reserve System, including information about monetary policy and the economy, the Federal Reserve in the international sphere, supervision and regulation, consumer and community affairs and services offered by Reserve Banks. Contains several appendixes, including a brief explanation of Federal Reserve regulations, a glossary of terms, and a list of additional publications.
"This book analyzes the evolutionary trends, functions and mechanisms of payment systems and presents an in-depth explanation of how these trends led to the reduction of settlement risk and the importance of such mechanisms that have contributed to the evolutionary progress of payment systems"--Résumé de l'éditeur.
