Singapore central bank to trial live wholesale CBDC for settlements
The Monetary Authority of Singapore has unveiled its plan to launch a live wholesale CBDC used for settlements by local banks.
A pilot program for a live Singapore dollar-based central bank digital currency (CBDC) was unveiled by Singapore’s central bank with a wholesale CBDC to be used by local banks for settlements.
“I am pleased to announce that MAS will pilot the ‘live’ issuance of wholesale CBDCs to instantaneously settle payments across commercial banks,” MAS Managing Director Ravi Menon said on Nov. 16 at the Singapore Fintech Festival.
The MAS had previously only simulated the issuance of a CBDC in test environments, Menon said the central bank would soon partner with Singaporean banks to test using a CBDC as a settlement asset for domestic payments.
As part of the test program, Menon explained banks will issue tokenized liabilities that represent claims on their balance sheets. Retail customers could use those tokenized liabilities to transact with merchants, which would be settled via an automatic transfer of a wholesale CBDC.
The MAS had previously only simulated the issuance of a CBDC in test environments, Menon said the central bank would soon partner with Singaporean banks to test using a CBDC as a settlement asset for domestic payments.
“Clearing and settlement thus occur in a single step, on the same infrastructure, unlike the current system in which clearing and settlement take place on different systems, and settlement occurs with a lag,” he said.
A wholesale CBDC is primarily used by central and commercial banks and other large financial institutions to settle payments.
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