The Bank of Korea’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) plans are moving forward with nine participating banks.
The second phase of the BOK’s CBDC program is planned for September with tests of real transactions, Yonhap news agency reported on Monday.
“The Bank of Korea will provide the infrastructure for the institutional CBDC, and each bank will conduct its own business using deposit tokens,” a BOK official told YNA. “Starting in the second phase we will lay the foundations for commercialization.”
The second phase of the BOK will be expanded to include a total of nine participating banks, including Gyeongnam Bank and iM Bank. The country’s three major banks, KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, and Woori Financial Group, are also participating in the CBDC project.
“The goal is to create an environment where the won can be freely traded regardless of time or place,” the government said, according to Yonhap.
CBDCs are a blockchain-based digital form of fiat currency that are managed by the issuing central bank and are considered legal tender. Only a handful of countries have officially introduced a CBDC. The Bahamas introduced one in October 2020, Nigeria in 2021 and Jamaica in 2022, according to the Atlantic Council’s CBDC tracker.
