Project Rosalind: building API prototypes for retail CBDC ecosystem innovation

The BIS Project Rosalind develops a prototype application programming interface layer for retail CBDC systems and explores ecosystem innovation.

What is Banking as a Service?

Banking as a Service is used by the likes of Chime, Monzo, and so many more online banks and financial service providers.

So, what exactly is Banking as a Service (BaaS)?

Well, it’s the provision of complete banking processes as a service using an existing licensed bank’s secure and regulated infrastructure, with modern API-driven platforms from a specialist provider. These providers partner with those banks, and then BaaS lets almost any brand to embed financial services into their customer experience​. And that might sound complicated - but it doesn’t have to be. Here to give you a run-down of BaaS is 11:FS Head of Ventures Simon Taylor.

Android Pay: a mobile payments layer 'anybody can build on'

Google Announces Mobile Payments Platform Android Pay

From Forbes –

“At the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona, Google's senior vice president of Android, Chrome and Google Apps Sundar Pichai announced an upcoming mobile payments framework called Android Pay. Android Pay will not be a separate payment app, but it is going to be a platform that enables developers to integrate mobile payments into their apps using an API layer.

“We are doing it in a way so that anybody else can build a payments service on top of Android,” said Pichai during the event via The Guardian. “In places like China and Africa, we hope that people will use Android Pay to build innovative services.” Android Pay will be able to act as a payment source within apps and stores that have NFC-capable registers.

Down the road, Google will enable Android Pay to utilize biometric devices such as fingerprint scanners — just like Apple Pay. Apple Pay can be secured using the Touch ID fingerprint sensors in some of the latest iOS devices to approve transactions. The credit card data of Android Pay users will be stored locally so that payments can be made without a data connection. To prevent fraud, Android Pay will use “tokenized” card numbers — which means that a one-time credit card number will be generated for each transaction.”

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