The Retail CBDC will be tried in a restricted retail climate with 10,000 members and three significant banks.
On top of its wholesale central bank digital currency
(CBDC) projects and proof-of-concept Retail CBDC testing with
corporates, the Bank of Thailand (BOT) will extend the scope of CBDC
development aimed at retail to a pilot phase. A possible real-life
application of the "Retail CBDC" will be conducted inside the private
sector on a limited scale.
As the Aug. 5 announcement on the official page of the BOT goes:
“The
BOT will assess the benefits and associated risks from the Pilot to
formulate related policies and improve the CBDC design in the future.”
The
pilot is separated into two tracks. During the first one — a
“Foundation track” — CBDC will be tested in cash-like activities, i.e.
paying for goods and services, within limited areas and a scale of
10,000 retail users. There will be three companies to participate in the
experiment — the Bank of Ayudhya, Siam Commercial Bank and 2C2P. The
testing should start at the end of 2022 and last until mid-2023.
A
second phase dubbed the “Innovation track” will focus on presenting
innovative use cases for CBDC. The private sector and the public will
have a chance to present their use cases for Retail CBDC via a "CBDC
Hackathon," which will take place Aug. 5 – Sept. 12, 2022. Selected
participants will get mentorship from experienced financial
institutions.
In the meantime, the BOT doesn’t plan to issue
Retail CBDC, “as the issuance requires thorough consideration” of risks
and benefits for the financial system in general.
Related: Strict Thai crypto regulation causes SCB to delay Bitkub acquisition
On Aug. 4, Thailand’s financial regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) granted operating licenses
to four digital asset operators, despite turmoil regarding the
Singaporean exchange Zipmex, which suspended withdrawals for customers
in the country in July. Crypto volumes in Thailand surged almost 600% in early 2021 as the bull market was building momentum.
source link : https://cointelegraph.com/news/the-bank-of-thailand-to-pilot-retail-cbdc-by-the-end-of-2022
