Zennon Kapron

TOKYO, JAPAN - Tokyo has been one of the cities vying to become a financial center of Asia, but the ... [+] results of its efforts have been underwhelming. (Photo by Adam Pretty/Getty Images)

Central Bank Digital Currencies have the potential to make cross-border payments faster, better, and cheaper. That just took a big step forward.

Grab has pushed heavily into financial services, but the results have been decidedly mixed.

Ever since it realized that the inherent difficulties in making a profit from ride hailing, Grab has been working to build up its digital financial services offerings.

Revolut app logo. Revolut is a digital banking alternative that includes a pre-paid debit card, ... [+] currency exchange, and peer-to-peer payments.

Although Asia started off as the center of CBDC hype, the results five years on, both inside China and out, have been mixed.

China has been the epicenter of CBDC development in Asia, but even there, the results haven't been ... [+] outstanding.

China's e-CNY is one of the biggest global CBDC experiments and is now expanding to Hong Kong.

Asia's real-time cross-border payment systems have hitherto been a mess, but maybe that's not a bad ... [+] thing. getty

Yotta's users are now out thousands of dollars. getty In the world of fintech, the inner workings behind your favorite app or savings platform are often hidden from view.