Bank of Thailand taps R3’s Corda DLT platform for wholesale central bank digital currency

The Bank of Thailand (BOT) has announced that it is developing a wholesale central bank digital currency (wholesale CBDC) using R3’s Corda platform.

The central bank has officially unveiled “Project Inthanon” aimed at exploring the implications and the potential benefits of distributed ledger technology (DLT) to enhance the efficiency of the Thai financial market infrastructure.

Earlier in June, BoT governor Veerathai Santiprabhob had announced the Project Inthanon at an event in Singapore. With this project, the BOT joins other central banks who are trialing DLT such as the Bank of Canada, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

The collaborative project is led by the BOT with participation from enterprise software firm R3 and 8 banks.

The Phase 1 of the project will involve designing, developing and testing a proof-of-concept prototype for domestic wholesale funds transfer by using wholesale CBDC. It will also see the development and testing of key payment functionalities such as liquidity saving mechanism and risk management.

The central bank expects the Phase 1 to be completed by the first quarter of 2019. Building upon the results from Phase 1, the participating organisations aim to “to further develop the capabilities of the prototype for broader functions including third party funds transfer and cross-border funds transfer.”

In addition to Project Inthanon, the BOT said it is conducting a DLT proof of concept to enhance the operational efficiency of scripless government savings bond sales.