- The assistant governor of Thailand’s central bank informs that the country is beginning to take a serious interest in the central bank’s digital currency.
Thailand is another Asian country that is starting to test and work on its own CBDC in this case Digital Baht.
These interests were reported by Dr. Vachira Arromdee, Financial Markets Operations Assistant at the Bank of Thailand, who also revealed that the regulator is in favor of retail CBDCs.
According to V. Arromdee, testing of the Digital Baht is set to begin in the second quarter, and in the next three to five years the Bank of Thailand will fully implement the Retail CBDC.
The fact that the Central Bank of Thailand is serious about this is also evidenced by the document with the apt title ‘The Way Forward for Retail Central Bank Digital Currency in Thailand’. In this almost 60-page document, the bank also writes that the CBDC retail offers various benefits, both in enhancing financial inclusion but also in reducing fraud.
Retail CBDC offers various benefits, ranging from enhancing financial inclusion to reducing fraud and money laundering.
We conclude that given the Thai context, CBDC could serve as an open public digital payment infrastructure that is highly secure and accessible as well as support financial innovation.
It is thus clear from the document that BoT is serious about the release of the Retail CBDC and the regulator adds that in the years 2021 – 2022 it will focus its efforts on the necessary research and development of this digital currency.
The regulator is also interested in the feedback and opinion of the general public or various financial institutions and invites them to join the discussion and send their comments by 15 June 2021.
