The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) plans to establish a digital currency pilot program in the coming months.
According to Deputy Government SBP Sima Kamil, who was quoted by the Arab News, the SBP would proceed with the pilot launch of Pakistan’s first digital currency after completing the necessary preparations, within two months.
She was cited as saying that the sandbox, which would start in a month or two, will be set up as a controlled environment for testing novel goods, services, or business models in a controlled, supervised setting.
A part of their five-year strategy, “SBP Vision 2028,” according to Kamil, included the introduction of the digital currency.
The financial regulator has been hesitant to legalise digital money in the nation, including Bitcoin, Litecoin, Pakcoin, OneCoin, and DasCoin, ultimately ruling them unlawful despite major investors parking their investment in digital currencies.
The proposal to launch its own digital money, however, came from the banking regulator. The vice-president of SBP clarified that CBDCs are different from cryptocurrencies.
A small number of nations have so far launched CBDCs, and other nations and central banks are investigating them.
Only Nigeria, Jamaica, and the Bahamas have so far opened their CBDCs, while other nations such as China, India, Saudi Arabia, France, Ghana, Canada, and Uruguay have launched their pilots, according to the Atlantic Council CBDC tracker.
