The Central Bank of the Philippines announced details of the wCBDC pilot project

A Banco Central ng Pilipinas (BSP) official revealed more details about the central bank's plans to study a wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC), according to a local press report.

BSP Payments and Currency Management Deputy Governor Mamerto Tangonan told a news conference on March 6 that the wCBDC pilot project, Project Aguila, will be completed by the end of this year. Tangonan called the pilot project a “learning exercise.” Tangonan said:

“We envision a Philippines where access to securities and similar investment instruments will be democratized, meaning they can be purchased in small case sizes and with very low fees so that any Juan or Maria can own securities, not just dream of it.”

Six domestic banks – BDO Unibank, China Banking Corp. , Land Bank of the Philippines, Rizal Commercial Bank Corporation, Union Bank of the Philippines and Maya Philippines – are participating in the pilot with the BSP. The project is using wCBDC to transfer money between banks.

“But we also want to see if this bulk CBCC can be used for more value-added services for the settlement of securities,” Tangonan added.

BSP governor Eli Remolona told reporters in February that the central bank is only considering wCBDC, due to bank dispersal and similar issues that could arise from retail CBDC. CBCC does not operate on the blockchain, he added.

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The Philippines has announced its intention to launch the CBCC in 2020. The BSP Monetary Board announced the bank's positive initial evaluation of wCBDC and plans for pilot trials from 2022. At that time it was known as Project CBDCPh. It was announced that a pilot project would start in April 2022.

The Philippines has participated in a pilot study to study the deployment of a retail CBDC by 2023 involving the Digital Dollar Project, Western Union and BDO Unibank. They found that the proposed CBDC would reduce costs and increase transparency and competition. However, since most of the money comes into the Philippines after business hours, the project has been challenged to improve the speed of the transaction.

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