AnalysisPY-2026-0291
Central bank pilots narrowed to wholesale
Retail projects quietly shelved; interbank settlement is where the work continued.
9▲ +3active wholesale pilots
6 minFinTech Payment Rails
Retail programmes ran into privacy objections and unclear demand. Wholesale settlement between institutions faced neither, and is where nearly all live activity now sits.
For commercial payment businesses this is close to a non-event: wholesale rails do not change what happens at the customer edge.