The Bank of Korea (BOK) is taking another important step towards adopting the trend for central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). The bank will reportedly organize a dedicated task force to build on top of the existing CBDC research and to improve it further.
A local report from today shows BOK’s intentions for developing more CBDC-orientated research groups. As included in the bank’s “Monetary Policy for 2020,” the research will target innovations, such as distributed ledger technology, cryptocurrency assets, and CBDCs.
Moreover, the Bank of Korea will organize a special task force with the sole purpose of providing a better understanding of how digital assets operate. Given the rising trend of global central banks adopting the CBDC idea, BOK will also hire additional experts:
“We will actively engage in discussions with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and other international organizations, keeping an eye on CBDC development at other central banks.”
The head of the central bank’s payment and settlement systems department, Hong Kyong-sik, had reportedly said that they are considering launching a digital currency of their own. The media attention expectedly increased after that, but a spokesman from the bank denied those assumptions, clarifying that “we just plan to strengthen our efforts for CBDC research.”
The General Manager of BIS recently spoke about the emerging trend of digital assets. Even though he is still against Bitcoin and other already established cryptocurrencies, he said that central banks have to embrace the digital money revolution. In fact, he went even further, noting that the responsibility falls on them to stay at the center of the global payments system, or risk being overtaken by other establishments.
The CBDC trend has been continuously increasing this year with many examples coming from China or the E.U. Even more recently, CryptoPotato reported yesterday about the Bank of Russia’s efforts in the area. The head of the country’s central bank noted that they have started testing a digital currency in a regulated sandbox, which might be the final step before being released to the public.