Bank of Korea Expands CBDC Pilot with New Participants

The Bank of Korea, in collaboration with nine commercial banks, has initiated the second phase of Project Hangang to explore the use of bank-issued deposit tokens on a wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) platform. According to NS3.AI, this phase includes the addition of Kyongnam Bank and iM Bank to the pilot program. The project will focus on testing various applications such as subsidy payments, consumer transfers, and nationwide transactions. The government plans to start distributing subsidies in digital currency within the first half of this year.