The central bank has completed a wholesale feasibility and technology study of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) and is gathering feedback and refining a platform design, Deputy Governor Chu Mei-lie (朱美麗) said yesterday.
Chu shared her views on the evolution and future of CBDCs in a keynote speech at an annual event organized by Financial Information Service Co (財金資訊), which oversees Taiwan’s banking, payment and settlement systems.
CBDCs are similar to cryptocurrencies, except that their value is fixed by a government authority and they are equivalent to a national currency.
Photo courtesy of the central bank
Chu said she agreed with the Bank for International Settlements that existing payment tools and platforms would not always be able to meet needs from all-day transactions, smart contracts and automatic settlements that allow simultaneous and irreversible transfers of assets or funds.
A nation’s monetary system should support tokenized assets and CBDCs might provide ultimate payment and settlement services, including tokenization and a unified ledger to integrate CBDC and traditional currencies, she said.
Unified legers would integrate CBDCs with tokenized real-world assets in the same programmable platform, with the CBDC the core ledger and the ultimate settlement of assets, she said.
The concept of a unified ledger does not mean there is only one ledger, but the tokenized ledger of each economy can coexist and be connected through an application interface to ensure interoperability and therefore reduce the risk of errors in message transmission, she said.
It is also intended to speed up the clearing process, create a safe trading environment and ensure that currency and asset transactions are carried out in a safe, reliable and effective manner, Chu said.
Foreign central banks are exploring and evaluating the feasibility of issuing CBDCs to make sure that all forms of currency have a single value, she said.
Taiwan’s central bank is prudently approaching the issue and has no timetable on when to reach a conclusion, she said.
The monetary policymaker would hold discussions with academics and business sectors while considering its stance, Chu said.
In the meantime, the central bank would seek to improve the overall planning regarding the platform design, transaction ease and capacity, as well as innovative functions, she said.
In addition, it is taking into consideration offline transaction scenarios, she added.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary