Bank of Ayudhya (Krungsri), Siam Commercial Bank and Singapore payment service provider 2C2P will participate in the project. These institutions will give selected users access to the app and wallet for the digital Thai baht, as well as a special QR code.
Krungsri is going to involve up to 2,000 employees, as well as about 100 outlet owners. In total, the project will involve about 10,000 users, the bankers expect. Sam Tanskul, managing director of Krungsri Innovate, said the retail CBDC should operate without a connection to the PromptPay payment service.
The pilot project was originally scheduled to launch in 2022. As for the Thai central bank’s wholesale digital currency, its development began back in 2018. Last year, the Bank of Thailand participated in the mBridge project, which was organized by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) to study government digital currencies.
Despite the imminent testing of the digital baht, the Bank of Thailand has not yet definitively decided on the launch of. Earlier, Sethaput Suthiwartnarueput, governor of the Central Bank of Thailand, said it would be better to do more research on the state steiblocoin to better study its risks and benefits.