Bangkok – As more and more attention is falling on digital currencies, the Bank of Thailand now intends to do a limited real-world test of its digital currency or CBDC in the second quarter of 2022.
Bank of Thailand Deputy Governor Vachira Arromdee said the BOT has undertaken studies on Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) since 2018 as it realized the potential benefits to be had for the future development of Thailand’s digital currency. She said the central bank plans to do a limited, real-world test of its CBDC in order to study its use in transactions and payments for goods and services. The limited test is scheduled for the second quarter of 2022, during which businesses and developers will also be involved in the test. The participation model and the criteria for participant entities are being determined.
Dong He, Deputy Director of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department, International Monetary Fund, viewed that the central banks of each nation needed to play roles in designing and regulating the use of CBDC. The objective was to maintain the stability of the financial system as well as the robustness of currency value, in contrast to privately issued cryptocurrencies whose values were volatile.
Siam Commercial Bank President Arak Sutivong expressed his belief that the collaborative creation of a digital money system by the public and private sectors will produce a system that can handle much more than payments. He gave examples of lending and international money wiring, saying transformation toward digital finance is a global focal point at present. (NNT)
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