The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), together with participating financial institutions (FIs), have completed the testing phase of Project Agila.
Project Agila will enable interbank fund transfers 24/7, even during off-business hours ranging includes evenings, weekends, and even holidays.
These transactions can safely be supported by open-source distributed ledger technology through the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
This project is a proof-of-concept for the BSP’s wholesale Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). The evaluation with FIs included functional, performance, security, exploratory, end-to-end, and programmability testing.
“Wholesale CBDCs have the potential to enhance liquidity management, reduce settlement risks, and support financial stability,” said BSP Governor Eli M. Remolona, Jr.
“The insights from Project Agila will inform the BSP’s CBDC roadmap as we utilise new technologies to improve the efficiency and resilience of the national payment system.”
CBDCs represent a nation’s currency in digital form, issued by the central bank.
Wholesale CBDCs facilitate interbank payments, securities transactions, and cross-border payments for commercial banks and other financial institutions.
The program aims to help the BSP and participating FIs explore and test the potential of CBDCs for improving the country’s large-value payment system.
Featured image credit: Edited from Freepik
