BSP Set to Pilot Test Digital Currency Until 2024

An official from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has mentioned that the BSP pilot project involving testing the usage of wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) in chosen financial institutions will run until 2024.

“This project was launched in 2022 and will run until 2024. The coverage of the pilot project is wholesale CBDC whereby the BSP will use the test and learn approach using a sandbox environment,”  mentioned BSP Currency Policy and Integrity Department Director Eloisa T. Glindro during the 4^th Regional Macroeconomic Conference Series.

“So, this will involve transfers of large value transactions among a limited number of participating financial institutions,” mentioned Glindro.

Last year, the BSP launched the CBDCPh project to have a better grasp of the risks and opportunities of wholesale CBDC and to address gaps in the payment system in the country.

“The objectives of this project are very modest. One is to build a necessary capacity within the BSP as well as with supervised financial institutions to have that hands-on knowledge on the functionality, architecture, as well as the operational and organizational requirements for CBDC,”  mentioned Glindro.

“Second is that we want to leverage from the learnings of this pilot project in defining the roadmap for future pilot projects for other use cases like cross-border payments, intraday liquidity facility, among others, and also equity settlement,”

This project of the BSP includes regulatory and policy considerations, technological infrastructure, organizational and governance requirements, legal matters, settlement and payment modes, risk management, and reconciliation procedures.

Source: Business World