Singapore's central bank completes first round of digital currency experiments

Singapore’s central bank said today that it has completed a distributed ledger pilot experiment focused on interbank payments.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS, Singapore’s central bank) announced in November that it had conducted tests with the R3 banking consortium and a group of member banks, including the Development Bank of Singapore, HSBC, Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase. According to the bank, the aim was to develop “a digital currency for interbank settlements in Singapore.”

A MAS official said the agency would soon release a more comprehensive report on the test, but he did not provide an exact date for the release.

According to MAS, the central bank plans to conduct further tests and leverage the distributed ledger technology as well as the experience gained from the first test.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said:

“The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has two projects planned and will leverage the learnings from the interbank payments project. The first project, driven by the Singapore Exchange (SGX), focuses on restoring the benefits of securities trading through distributed ledgers and making the settlement cycle more efficient. The second project focuses on exploring new methods for cross-border payments using central bank digital currencies.”

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is understood to have said it is discussing connecting Singapore’s payment systems with those of other countries and using distributed ledger technology to manage these transactions.

Notably, Sopnendu Mohanty, chief fintech officer at Singapore’s central bank, said the central bank’s collaboration with several banks has spawned other interbank trials.

“Some institutions have been inspired by this collaboration and have started research on similar projects. We look forward to the next phase of the project, which will develop pilot applications for securities settlement and cross-border payments,” he said.