THE BANGKO SENTRAL ng Pilipinas (BSP) has finalized the evaluation stage for Project Agila, its experimental initiative for a central bank digital currency (CBDC).
In an announcement on Thursday, the BSP indicated it has wrapped up the evaluation for Project Aguila, alongside other involved financial entities.
“Wholesale CBDCs are anticipated to improve liquidity management, diminish settlement risks, and bolster financial stability,” BSP Governor Eli M. Remolona, Jr. remarked.
“Findings from this initiative will steer the BSP’s CBDC framework. Our objective is to utilize emerging technologies to further boost the efficiency and durability of the national payment system,” he continued.
The initiative aims to “enable financial institutions to move funds to one another even outside regular operating hours, encompassing evenings, weekends, and holidays.”
“These transactions can securely be facilitated by open-source distributed ledger technology via the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.”
The BSP previously stated that the initiative is likely to be introduced by 2029, still within the six-year term of Mr. Remolona.
Since 2021, the central bank has been assessing applications for wholesale CBDCs.
“Project Agila serves as a proof-of-concept for the BSP’s CBDC at the wholesale level. The assessment with financial entities encompassed functional, performance, security, exploratory, end-to-end, and programmability testing,” the central bank mentioned.
The initiative also aims to “investigate and test the viability of CBDCs, while assessing whether this technology can assist in enhancing the country’s large-value payment system.”
The BSP previously stated its willingness to explore retail CBDCs but does not perceive an immediate necessity for it.
CBDCs represent a type of digital currency denominated in the national unit of account and are direct obligations of the central bank.
Wholesale CBDCs may be issued to commercial banks and other financial entities to facilitate interbank payments, securities transactions, and cross-border payments, among others. — Luisa Maria Jacinta C. Jocson
