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The Philippines will pursue a wholesale central bank digital currency pilot project, to be called Project CBDCPh, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas governor Benjamin E. Diokno announced<\/a> Wednesday. Diokno spoke about the project last week at a roundtable of the 14th Annual Group of 24\/Alliance for Financial Inclusion Policymakers held at the International Monetary Fund\u2013World Bank spring meetings in Washington, DC.\u00a0<\/p>\n The project will be led by an intersectoral domestic team, Diokno said, as well as \u201cexternal advisers from international standard-setting bodies and multilateral institutions to build on training and knowledge sharing on CBDC development and implementation all over the world.\u201d Diokno called<\/a> the project \u201ccritical in constructing the BSP\u2019s medium- to long-term roadmap for more advanced wholesale CBDC projects that will further strengthen the Philippine payment system.\u201d<\/p>\n A presentation prepared in advance of the roundtable stated<\/a>, \u201cThere is minimal perceived added value for the use of retail CBDC in the Philippines, given the progress in the implementation of retail payment and financial inclusion reforms.\u201d It noted that about 20.1% of the monthly retail payments volume was in digital form at the end of 2020, up from 10% in 2018 and 1% in 2013. All government salaries are paid digitally.<\/p>\n The central bank foresees using the wholesale CBDC for cross-border payments, equity securities payments and intraday liquidity facility (ILF). At present, ILF is not fully automated. The Financial Action Task Force recently identified the Philippines<\/a> as having inadequate Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism standards.<\/p>\n The country took its first steps toward a CBDC last year with the release<\/a> of an exploratory study. It also signed memoranda of understanding on information exchange and capacity building with the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Central Bank of Mauritius in the areas of digital currency, fintech and Islamic banking, and took part in a Bank for International Settlements study<\/a> on the role of CBDCs in financial inclusion. <\/p>\n The Group of 24, which has grown to 28 members since its founding plus China as a \u201cspecial invitee,\u201d coordinates \u201cthe position of developing countries on monetary and development issues,\u201d according<\/a> to its website.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n