Deputy Governor of the Bank of Thailand Vachira Arromdee announced that the bank has entered a new stage of testing the state digital currency.
According to Arromdi, earlier the Central Bank of Thailand (BoT) began testing the digital currency with large financial institutions, and in September plans to test it together with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA). At this stage, the Central Bank of Thailand is testing stablecoin with the participation of small firms.
BoT expects that its digital currency will be able to be used for settlements not only by government agencies or large financial companies, but also by ordinary people. However, before a large-scale launch of the national cryptocurrency, it is necessary to conduct a comprehensive analysis of it and weigh all the pros and cons.
Arromdi still doubts the advisability of using the digital baht and suggests that this may negatively affect the activities of commercial banks, since there will be no need for intermediaries to complete financial transactions.
On the other hand, digital currency will reduce the cost of transactions. At the same time, Arromdi cited the example of the digital yuan from the People's Bank of China (NBK), which is being tested in various industries, and this did not affect the country's financial system in any way.
In June 2020, BoT officially launched a pilot project to develop a new payment system for settlements between financial institutions using state cryptocurrencies, and last year, the Central Bank began testing a blockchain for international transfers with the oil company PTTEP.