Bank Indonesia on Track to Release Digital Rupiah
IN BRIEF Bank Indonesia moves to the pre-launch stage of their CBDC program. According to the Bank for International Settlements, 85% of central banks are actively researching CBDCs. Other Asian countries looking into CBDCs include Japan, South Korea, and China. Bank Indonesia is in the pre-launch stages of releasing a digital rupiah currency and is vetting platforms to see which will suit their needs the best. As the world sees an increase in digital transactions during the covid-19 pandemic, many countries are beginning to look closer at launching central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). According to research done by the Bank for International Settlement (BIS), more than 85% of central banks are actively researching CBDC, while 60% are testing technology and 14% have moved to start alpha testing these projects. Digital currencies are set to help to modernize these financial systems and significantly speed up international transactions. Today, Bank Indonesia (BI) became the latest of a long line of central banks to announce their move toward a national digital currency. As for Bank Indonesia, they have decided to make creating and launching the digital rupiah one of their main priorities, after seeing a spike in digital transactions. According to the statement, transaction frequency on digital banking platforms shot up