The Bank of Thailand has unveiled a plan to launch a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot project within a regulatory sandbox, commencing this month according to a report by Bangkok Post.
The Thai central bank has partnered Bank of Ayudhya (Krungsri), Siam Commercial Bank and Singapore-based payments service provider 2C2P to conduct the trial.
These organisations have introduced mobile banking applications to a selected group of users, featuring integrated wallets and QR code scanners, facilitating the transfer into digital money called "digital baht".
Krungsri, one of the first financial institutions to test the retail CBDC, has enlisted its staff and around 100 merchants near its headquarters to test the digital currency. It will expand the project to its Ploenchit branch as well.
It also expects the number of participants to increase, planning a target of 2,000 staff to join the pilot project.
Sam Tanskul, managing director of Krungsri Innovate, a corporate venture capital arm under Krungsri said the project will run until August and engage up to 10,000 users.
"The bank needs to determine a strategy to differentiate retail CBDC from PromptPay service," he added.
The Bank of Thailand announced the pilot in August and was initially scheduled to launch in 2022. It referred to the project as a “pilot to learn” rather than a pilot launch.
Siam Commercial Bank’s CBDC SCB Wallet pilot is also operating similarly to Krungsri with participation from its staff and neighbouring merchants.
