Latest Payments News: Canada Moves Towards First Federal Framework For Stablecoins, and more

Catch up on some of the stories our payments compliance analysts have covered lately, and stay up-to-date on the latest news.

Canada Moves Towards First Federal Framework For Stablecoins

Forthcoming legislation is expected to replicate models adopted in comparable jurisdictions by providing clear regulation of stablecoins and clarifying the boundary between payment stablecoins and securities.

Canada’s Department of Finance has signalled that the government intends to introduce new legislation to regulate the issuance of fiat-backed stablecoins.

In its Budget 2025 announcement in early November 2025, the Department included a preview of the legislation, which would be the first of its kind in Canada.

“This legislation will require issuers to maintain and manage adequate asset reserves, establish redemption policies, implement risk management frameworks, and protect the sensitive and personal information of Canadians,” the document notes.

“The legislation will also include national security safeguards to support the integrity of the framework, ensuring that fiat-backed stablecoins are safe and secure for consumers and businesses to use.”

The framework will extend to “non-prudential” issuers of fiat-backed stablecoins, including payment service providers (PSPs) and excluding banks, insurers and deposit-taking institutions.

In addition, amendments will be made to the Retail Payment Activities Act (RPAA) to enable the regulation of non-issuer PSPs (PSPs that facilitate payments without issuing stablecoins themselves) that carry out “payment functions” using “prescribed” stablecoins.

The legislation will be administered and enforced by the Bank of Canada, which will receive CAD10m ($7m) over two years to cover the initial administration costs. Administrative costs in subsequent years are projected to be CAD5m ($3.6m) per year, and will be recouped through fees charged to regulated issuers.

UK’s Future Retail Payments Strategy Signals New Era Of Competition And Innovation

The new strategy challenges card networks’ dominance and plans for multi-money interoperability, but its success will depend on whether payment service providers (PSPs) can adapt their business models through a multi-year transformation.

In November 2024, the UK government published its National Payments Vision, establishing the Payments Vision Delivery Committee (PVDC) to chart a course for the country's payments future.

The Strategy for Future Retail Payments Infrastructure, released in early November 2025, represents the PVDC's response: a framework built around five strategic outcomes that extend beyond a mere technological upgrade to reimagine how money moves through the British economy.

The PVDC comprises the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), the Bank of England and HM Treasury.

The committee has developed a strategy based on three foundational pillars: innovation; competition; and security. At its heart lies a commitment to account-to-account (A2A) functionality at the point of sale, moving beyond the card-dominated present towards a more diverse payments landscape.

The strategy articulates five interconnected outcomes:

• First, it envisions greater choice of innovative, cost-effective payment options for consumers and businesses, while maintaining essential services such as cheque processing for financial inclusion.
• Second, it foresees the emergence of a “multi-money ecosystem” where stablecoins, tokenised deposits and traditional digital money interoperate seamlessly.
• Third, it prioritises fraud prevention through collaborative efforts, high-quality data and AI-driven analytics.
• Fourth, it demands fair, transparent access to infrastructure for all participants to maximise competition.
• Finally, it requires end-to-end operational resilience, supporting around-the-clock transactions.

Pay.UK, the operator of existing retail interbank payment systems, will continue to oversee the current infrastructure as the ecosystem prepares for transformation.

Africa’s Digital Payment Systems On The Path To Interoperability

Nigeria and South Africa’s differing approaches to digital payments reflect two distinct paths set to converge in 2026, as regional interoperability takes shape.

Sub-Saharan Africa’s payments landscape is entering a decisive phase. The rapid adoption of digital payment systems, including mobile money, fast payment systems (FPS) and nascent central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), is transforming how people transact, save and send money.

Yet this transformation is unfolding amid fragmented infrastructure, uneven regulation and persistent informality.

For firms and investors, Nigeria and South Africa offer a clear contrast: one led by public-sector CBDC experimentation, the other by private-sector innovation within a robust regulatory framework.

Together, they highlight the opportunities and risks shaping Africa’s payments ecosystem as interoperability and regulatory convergence accelerate.

Launched in 2021, Nigeria’s eNaira made it one of the first countries globally to introduce a retail CBDC, aimed at boosting inclusion, lowering transaction costs and reducing cash use.

Policymakers hoped the eNaira would lower transaction costs, enhance traceability, and serve as a digital backbone for government-to-person (G2P) transfers.

However, uptake has been limited. An International Monetary Fund (IMF) working paper published in May 2023 estimated that fewer than one per cent of Nigerians used the eNaira in its first year, reflecting low public trust, limited awareness and poor interoperability with private wallets.

Regulatory centralisation has ensured oversight, but has also constrained innovation. For example, the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) initial restrictions on mobile money operators and slow integration of open banking frameworks, which hindered the CBDC’s ability to complement and enhance existing payment systems.

Despite these early frictions, Nigeria’s legal and supervisory ecosystem is evolving rapidly. The CBN has strengthened frameworks for electronic money issuers (EMIs), data protection and anti-money laundering/counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) compliance, creating a clearer path for fintech collaboration.

In the design paper for the eNaira, the CBN notes that Nigeria is one of the few countries to pair a CBDC rollout with parallel reforms to digital identity and regulatory sandboxes, which are critical preconditions for scaling adoption.

For investors, Nigeria represents both risk and opportunity. The risk stems from digital literacy gaps, cybersecurity vulnerabilities and the threat of reputational damage in the event that state-led systems underperform.

The opportunity lies in Nigeria’s untapped market potential: World Bank data shows that more than 39 percent of the population was using mobile internet in 2023, and research by Rome Business School found that the country’s fintech sector attracted more than a third of Africa’s total venture capital funding in 2024. In addition, the government increasingly views digital finance as a fiscal and inclusion tool.

If interoperability between the eNaira, mobile money and regional payment networks materialises in 2026, Nigeria could emerge as a hub for diaspora remittances, digital tax collection and programmable public transfers.

Success Of UK APP Fraud Regime Still An Open Question

More than a year after the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) introduced its authorised push payment (APP) fraud reimbursement framework, debate over its efficacy and fairness continues, and its future remains uncertain.

The reimbursement regime was introduced with the aim of promoting fairness – large sending banks previously bore full liability, despite the role of receiving banks in facilitating fraudulent activity.

The regulator viewed APP fraud as a significant threat to both consumers and payment service providers (PSPs). Crimes such as romance scams can be devastating for victims, both financially and personally, while UK financial institutions also suffer substantial losses from increasingly sophisticated fraud tactics.

The PSR sought to share the responsibility for reimbursement and incentivise both sides of the transaction to scrutinise it for signs of fraud.

Speaking on a panel at the Payments Association’s Financial Crime 360 event in early November 2025, Mark Thynne, senior manager, enforcement and compliance monitoring at the PSR, said the policy has resulted in significant reimbursement for consumers.

This position is supported by data published by the PSR in September 2025, which showed that 88 percent of the money lost to APP scams within the scope of the policy, amounting to £112m, was returned to victims.

Thynne noted that an independent review of the first year of the APP fraud reimbursement policy is underway, with the results due in spring 2026.

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