The Qatar Central Financial institution (QCB) is reportedly investigating the potential of launching a digital foreign money and issuing digital financial institution licenses.
Based on the pinnacle of the fintech part at QCB, Alanood Abdullah Al Muftah, the central financial institution is expected to set a route for its future focus quickly on a variety of fintech verticals.
Al Muftah famous that QCB can even decide whether or not Qatar can set up a central financial institution digital foreign money (CBDC). She defined:
“Every central financial institution ought to examine digital banks, contemplating their rising significance within the world market. We additionally see the route of the market shifting towards having a digital foreign money. Nonetheless, it is nonetheless being studied whether or not we’re having a digital foreign money or not.”
Whereas commenting on Qatar’s regulatory sandbox, Al Muftah mentioned that three corporations within the funds sector are presently testing options with the central financial institution. She additionally said that the QCB is contemplating different corporations fascinated by using the regulatory sandbox.
A regulatory sandbox is an area by which fintech corporations can check new merchandise, companies, enterprise fashions and supply mechanisms in a real-world setting whereas benefiting from an accelerated authorization course of and supervisory monitoring.
Personal Qatari financial institution Dukhan Financial institution, in the meantime, is analyzing the potential of making a digital financial institution in Qatar, its chief operations and digital officer Narayanan Srinivasan instructed The Peninsula. Nonetheless, Srinivasan warned that his establishment would solely construct a digital financial institution after a greater understanding of its economics. As per the report, Dukhan Financial institution can also be contemplating blockchain expertise within the funds sector.
Associated: The Philippines to launch pilot CBDC implementation
Though personal digital currencies like Bitcoin (BTC) have grown in reputation and followers, government-backed CBDCs, regularly considered an antithesis to non-public cryptocurrencies, have been accelerating quickly. Based on knowledge from the Atlantic Council, as of June 2019, 87 nations are presently creating their very own digital foreign money, with solely 14 having accomplished the pilot section. 9 nations have already carried out a CBDC.