The Central Bank of Thailand will not rush to launch its own digital currency, officials intend to devote several more years to studying its advantages. Governor of the Central Bank of Thailand (BoT) Sethaput Suthiwartnarueput said that more research will help to better understand the risks associated with retail government cryptocurrency.
Its launch will make sense if, with proper risk management, CBDC will have advantages that conventional, fiat money does not have. In particular, the digital baht must be interoperable with the Promptpay service used for payments in Thailand.
Sutivartnaruput noted that at the moment the central bank does not see such advantages. The official emphasized that the decision to launch a state stablecoin would be made if it really could change the financial system for the better and benefit all its participants.
The Governor of the Central Bank of Thailand added that the development and testing of a digital baht could take up to five years. The regulator is cooperating on this issue with several financial institutions, involving about 10,000 retail users. BoT is expected to test the digital baht at the end of the year to pay for goods and services.
Last year, the regulator opened public discussions on the launch of the digital baht to discuss its legal and technical aspects in detail with stakeholders. BoT is actively involved in pilot projects to launch state cryptocurrencies with other central banks.
For example, he worked on the development of a platform for government stablecoins as part of the mBridge project, together with the central banks of Hong Kong, China and the UAE. Recently, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) reported on the completion of testing CBDC for international payments.