Taiwan's central bank has been focused on introducing wholesale digital currency (CBDC) and using blockchain for interbank transfers. The central bank also studied the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into banking to improve its infrastructure, said Mei-lie Chu, a top manager at the Central Bank of Taiwan.
He noted the positive results of the research – the central bank concluded that CBDCs can optimize payment systems, increase security, reduce transaction fees and reduce settlement time. Mei-li Chu noted that wholesale CBDC is still far from final implementation, as there are risks of technical problems. The Central Bank plans to hold public consultations to find out the opinions of commercial banks, blockchain-based solution providers and other interested parties on the launch of the Central Bank digital currency.
Chu said the central bank will take a slow and cautious approach to introducing wholesale digital currency as it is still in the early stages of development.. As for the retail digital Taiwan dollar, the regulator has also made significant progress, Chu added.. The central bank completed a pilot project that involved five leading commercial banks and merchants testing CBDC in “real-life scenarios.”
Last year, the regulator said that research and testing of the state-owned stablecoin could take at least another two years.. Recently, the Taiwanese regulator began studying the benefits and risks of launching cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs).