Today the Bank of Italy and the Bank of Korea announced a memorandum of understanding to share knowledge on technologies that support Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) systems and central bank digital currency (CBDC).
When it comes to CBDC the two central banks have quite different paths. While the Bank of Korea has conducted retail CBDC trials, its current focus is the issuance of a wholesale CBDC to support tokenized bank deposits. Initial tokenized deposit trials will be for programmable payments including voucher style tests.
On the retail front, Italy is part of the European Central Bank’s (ECB) retail CBDC trials. With the ECB’s decision to move to the preparation phase, it looks likely that Europe will be one of the first major economies (after China) to launch a retail CBDC.
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