The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has selected Hyperledger Fabric as the distributed ledger technology (DLT) for its wholesale Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) pilot project, Project Agila.
Formerly known as Project CBDCPh, Project Agila aims to test the use of CBDC technology to enhance the country’s large-value payment system.
Project Agila will test enabling inter-institutional fund transfers even during off-business hours or when PhilPaSSplus is unavailable.
The pilot project will involve seven participating financial institutions: BDO Unibank, China Banking Corp., Land Bank of the Philippines, Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation, Union Bank of the Philippines, and Maya Philippines.
Meanwhile, observing financial institutions for succeeding stages are Citibank N. A. Manila, China Bank Savings, Wealth Development Bank Corporation, and SeaBank Philippines.
The BSP also collaborated with multilateral organisations, such as the International Monetary Fund and the Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub, on the technical, risk management, and governance aspects of the pilot CBDC project.
After the selection of the technology for the project, participants will test the use of wholesale CBDC technology alongside PhilPaSSplus in a sandbox environment.
Eli Remolona
“The results of the assessment are seen to guide the BSP and the industry on a possible launch of wholesale CBDCs in the Philippines.
With the goal of further enhancing the efficiency and safety of the national payment system, we will use learnings from the project as input for crafting BSP’s wholesale CBDC project roadmap,”
said BSP Governor Eli M. Remolona, Jr.
