The Central Bank of Taiwan has reportedly completed several tests for a government-owned digital currency. With this, they are making great strides in rolling out the digital currency to the public public. Reportedly, some tests still need to be completed before this will be the case.
Launch date not yet known
However, the central bank has not yet announced when the digital currency will be launched. In September of 2020, the bank started a pilot for its own CBDC, a digital currency issued by a country’s central bank.
Since 2020, the central bank has not been idle. Several talks have been held with at least 5 commercial banks in the country to jointly develop a retail payment system. With this payment system, people will have to be able to make payments with a digital wallet, in which in this case the digital currency of the central bank will be stored.
Legal framework not yet drawn up
However, there are still some issues that need to be settled before the CBDC can be launched in Taiwan. In the first instance, the public must be well informed about the new possibilities that the launch of a CBDC entails. Regulations also have to be drawn up and a legal framework has to be developed.
Previously, Taiwan has enforced a set of anti-money laundering rules specifically for crypto services. One of the new rules is that transactions of at least 500,000 New Taiwan Dollars (about $16,000) must be reported to the country’s research bureau. The ultimate goal of the rules is to protect citizens. This could also be a possible reason for the country to develop its own digital currency. As mentioned earlier in this article, unfortunately no date has yet been announced when the launch will take place.