Thailand Postpones Its CBDC Pilot Program To Late 2022

Thailand has announced its plans to postpone the testing of its central bank-issued digital currency (CBDC) until late 2022. Recall that the testing was initially slated for Q2 2022, but has now been rescheduled to later in the same year.

Thailand Postpones CBDC Test

According to Reuters who shared the rescheduling report, Thailand is looking to use the CBDC as an alternative payment option to replace cash.

And while the postponement may have been confirmed, the reason behind the central bank’s decision is yet to be ascertained. Although, the deputy director at the Bank of Thailand, Kasidit Tansanguan may have hinted about a laser-focus aim at efficiency that may require working at a slow pace.

Thailand can still take a gradual step in the retail CBDC to ensure efficiency and prudence as it does have a problem with fund transfers or payments as some other countries,” he said further.

But despite the delay, it is still expected that the testing phase will be used to carefully analyse the use of CBDC as it pertains to transactions and how it can complement cash payments.

For the pilot project, about 10,000 users alongside a few financial institutions will test the digital currency for offline and online transactions including withdrawals, deposits, and fund transfers.

CBDC Grows In Popularity As The World Goes Even More Digital

Without any doubts, the world is definitely going digital. Reasonably so however, especially seeing as COVID cases are now becoming rampant. Now globally, these genuine concerns have caught the attention of most central banks as they continue looking for ways provide an alternative to cash transactions.

In fact, some nations have now gone past the testing phase and are already using their CBDC. For instance, Nigeria and Bahamas are already actively using their CBDCs, whereas other countries like Ghana and China and already in the testing phase that precedes the roll-out.

Recall however, that central banks have insisted that CBDC will not entirely replace cash, but just complement it.