Last week, Singapore’s Minister of Finance responded to a parliamentary question about a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) and clarified that there’s “no pressing need for its issuance” in the near future.
Nonetheless, Minister Lawrence Wong, who is also the Deputy Chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), stated the country wants to be ready to issue a digital Singapore dollar if the need arises. Hence the launch of Project Orchid – a partnership with the private sector focused on building the tech infrastructure and competencies to support the issuance of a digital Singapore dollar.
While MAS has been at the forefront of experiments with central bank digital currencies, the focus in the past has been more on wholesale rather than retail CBDCs. It published five sets of trials under Project Ubin. The minister stated that retail CBDCs were “not very relevant to MAS and Singapore at this juncture”. This decision is in line with several other central banks, such as the US Federal Reserve, Bank of Canada, and Reserve Bank of Australia.
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