The two-phase CBDC testing will take place from late 2022 to mid-2023 among 10,000 retail users selected by the Bank of Thailand?
Bank of Thailand to pilot retail CBDC. Source: unsplash.com
Vachira Arromdee, deputy governor of the central bank in Thailand, announced the Bank of Thailand (BOT) will extend the scope of retail CBDC development from research to a pilot phase.?
The bank emphasised that the pilot will determine the suitability of CBDC technology in the Thai economic context, but it does not guarantee the issuance of retail CBDC. Real-life application of retail CBDC will run in cooperation with the private sector on a limited scale.?
Namely, during the first pilot phase, 10,000 retail users selected by the BOT will have a chance to participate. The study will assess the system’s efficiency and safety while conducting cash-like activities, such as paying for goods and services.?
In addition, the second Innovation phase will facilitate the development of innovative use cases for CBDC. Thus, the BOT will allow the private sector and the public to participate in presenting business use cases for Retail CBDC via a “CBDC Hackathon”.
Besides establishing utility for the Thai market, Arromdee also noted the pilot will match the efforts of other central banks, focusing on the development of retail CBDC and its possible impacts across the global banking sector.
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Nina Bobro
Nina is passionate about financial technologies and environmental issues, reporting on the industry news and the most exciting projects that build their offerings around the intersection of fintech and sustainability.
