Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and South Africa launch CBDC Scheme
Sakshi Education
Central banks in Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and South Africa launched a Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) Scheme on August 2, 2021. CBDC scheme is a cross border payments trial that uses different central bank digital currencies (CBDC) in order to assess if this allows transactions to be settled in a cheap and easy manner.
CBDC Scheme
Many governments and central banks across the world are exploring the use of CBDCs. CBDCs are digital forms of existing currencies. Countries like China, are trialling retail-focused CBDCs that have been designed to replicate cash in circulation.
Other countries are considering to use wholesale CBDCs in order to improve the internal workings of financial systems. Most of the projects are still in early stages and are domestically focused. But, the developing global rules and frameworks on how CBDCs can be used internationally is complicated technically.
A separate BIS-led project to explore CBDCs for cross-border payments is also in process which involve central banks from China, Hong Kong, the UAE.
