Currency central: The future of money
- Date: 15-Jan-2022
- Source: Zawya
- Sector:Financial Markets
- Country:Saudi Arabia
Currency central: The future of money
Little over a year ago, the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) and Central Bank of United Arab Emirates (CBUAE) agreed to jointly explore the creation of a Central Bank
Digital Currency or CBDC. Project ‘Aber’, meaning crossing boundaries in Arabic, was a pilot to explore whether distributed ledger technology (DLT) or blockchain, the technology stack underlying a CBDC, could enable cross-border payments.
The conclusion of the experiment was more than satisfactory. A report detailing the findings co-authored by SAMA and CBUAE and released recently said, “The project confirmed that DLT can provide central banks the ability to reimagine both domestic and cross-border payment systems in new ways,” and then added, “We are pleased by the promising results, insights, and learnings described in this report and trust that they will benefit the central banking community and broader financial ecosystem in visualising the potential of this new technology to transform the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) financial markets and indeed our industry.”
In the process, both the UAE and Saudi Arabia, renewed the spotlight on a new trend sweeping the global financial sector and at the same time contributed to the learning quotient on CBDCs. They are part of a growing list of 90 countries engaged in various stages
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