According to the Korea Herald report, the Bank of Korea has launched a legal team to help launch the central bank digital currency (CBDC), and cryptocurrencies rolled out by central banks. The Bank of Korea had maintained a lukewarm stance toward the CBDC matter until then, even dissolving a special cryptocurrency research team in January 2019, but its global counterparts’ growing interest in cryptocurrency nudged the central bank to revisit the issue.
Other countries get into central bank digital currencies.
The central bank of South Korea noted that the US and Japan had no plans to issue CBDCs previously but now have changed their stance. According to the report, central banks in Canada, the UK, Japan, the EU, Sweden, and Switzerland launched their own CBDC research groups earlier this year. China is getting close to launch its national digital currency dubbed as DC/EP. The Bank of Korea’s legal team will operate for the next 12 months until May next year. The launch aims to clarify legal areas concerning the central bank’s issuance of cryptocurrency, which remains unclear.
Pandemic pushes countries to research CBDCs.
The coronavirus pandemic is accelerating global CBDC development, with more and more people turning to digital payments. The Bank of Korea is currently reviewing the legal matters around the centralized cryptocurrency. An official from the central bank said that they established the advisory group to discuss legal issues surrounding a CBDC and figure out which laws need to be revised or enacted for smooth progress in the BOK’s possible issuance of digital currency.
China has been working on its national digital currency from the last five to six years and is now very close to issuing it to the public. The digital currency is being tested in 4 cities in China, and multinational companies like McDonald’s and Alibaba are involved in the pilot project.
