TNT, Pimpy and Currency 365 Monday PM 11-2-2020

Nov 2

TNT:

Tishwash: The Central Bank opens an account with Euroclear to develop the performance of foreign reserves

From the CBI Site

With unremitting efforts by the administration of the Central Bank of Iraq in developing the management of foreign reserves, this bank opened an account with (EuroClear Corporation), which is the most important custodian institution that provides securities custody services as well as other services, including the ease of conducting investment operations without the need for a contract Agreements with issuer of securities, low cost of custody and ease of tracking.

This bank indicates that soon, the process was carried out by central banks and correspondent banks, which impose an additional commission on keeping these papers in addition to the limited investment due to the multiplicity of procedures and their complexity in the presence of the intermediary.

This step is important in the work of the Central Bank of Iraq, as it simulates international practices in the process of investing foreign reserves, and is an important achievement that this bank adds to its set of achievements in managing reserves and international transactions.

The Central Bank of Iraq, the second of November 2020 link

Tishwash: Iraq is preparing to receive donor countries next week

The General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers announced that the ninth of this month will witness the presence of donor countries to support and finance projects in the liberated areas.

While the United Nations Development Program said, "It has implemented hundreds of service and humanitarian projects in the liberated governorates, and we are continuing to rehabilitate and implement projects in the liberated governorates."

He referred to "the implementation of 271 service and humanitarian projects in Salah al-Din Governorate and the rehabilitation of 20,000 residential homes in Anbar Governorate."

The United Nations Development Program announced the implementation of "1754 service projects in Nineveh Governorate." link

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Harambe: VietnamPlus: Vietnam to allow banks to use foreign e-wallets for int’l payments

(11/1/20)

Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The State Bank of Vietnam is drafting a circular regarding cashless payments which might allow domestic commercial banks and domestic intermediary payment companies to co-operate with foreign intermediary payment companies to provide international payment services.

Under current regulations, domestic banks are only allowed to cooperate with foreign banks and international card organisations for international payments.

There are no regulations for international payments made via foreign e-wallets as well as about international payments that don't go through payment accounts.

This loophole in the era of Industry 4.0 has seen a rapid boom of international payment methods.

In recent years there has been huge demand for payments via foreign e-wallets such as Wechat Pay and Alipay from Chinese tourists in Vietnam. Vietnam attracts a large number of Chinese tourists every year.

Some banks and intermediary payment companies have asked the central bank to allow them to co-operate with foreign intermediary payment companies to serve international demand while exploiting the large potential of this segment.

Nguyen Hung, General Director of TPBank, said domestic banks could not cooperate with foreign e-wallets like Wechat Pay and Alipay at the moment due to the lack of a legal framework. “We are getting ready to start but must wait for the green light from the central bank,” Hung was quoted by Dau Tu (Investment) online newspaper as saying.

According to Pham Tien Dung, director of the central bank’s Payment Department, the Industry 4.0 revolution had created a number of new international payment models. Previously, international payments were mainly conducted via bank accounts and credit cards, but now e-wallets were emerging, he added.

“It is clear that the definition of international payment must be changed. People should be able to make international payments through their banks and also via intermediary payment methods,” he said. “In a changing world, the management method needs to change,” Dung stressed.

Along with technological advances, cross-border payments are becoming much easier. Cross-border intermediary payment platforms are booming around the world, attracting not only fintech companies but also big corporations such as Amazon, Apple and Google.

Experts predicted there would be a wave of co-operation between banks and domestic fintech companies with foreign e-wallets after the central bank gave the green light, which would also provide support for the tourism and e-commerce industries.

E-wallets are developing rapidly in Vietnam. AppotaPay received a licence from the State Bank of Vietnam in October, making it the 39th intermediary payment company in Vietnam.

The COVID-19 pandemic was also pushing the development of cashless payments among the country's 97 million population, about 70 percent of whom have access to the internet and 45 percent use smartphones.

Statistics from the central bank showed that as of the end of the first quarter, there were about 13 million activated e-wallet accounts in Vietnam with a total outstanding balance of 1.36 trillion VND (58.62 million USD).

More than 225 million transactions were conducted, worth 77.7 trillion VND, via e-wallets in the first quarter.