South Korea Appoints Legal Advisory to Study CBDC

South Korean central bank has appointed a legal advisory group to study the issues and the feasibility of launching a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

Announced on Monday, the six-member team includes three professors, two lawyers, and one Bank of Korea official.

The group is tasked to study the industry and advice on legislations or amendments necessary to bring a digital currency by the central bank.

Though the central bank did not set any hard guidelines or set any specific deadlines for a CBDC launch, the panel might operate until May next year. The regulator might also reconsider the further extension of the study by the group at a later date.

A pilot program already in place

Notably, the Bank of Korea also launched a pilot program of launching its digital currency earlier this year. The pilot started last April and will run through 22 months till December 2021, meaning the advisory group is scheduled to dissolve before the pilot ends.

However, the central bank clarified before that the pilot is only to check the limitations of launching a digital currency and prepare itself for any such requirements for the future. It specifically highlighted that it has no plans to bring any such digital currency in the near future.

South Korean monetary regulator first hinted its interest on CBDC in December 2019, and also appointed experts to study such digital currency initiatives of other countries.

Along with South Korea, many other nations are also launching pilot programs of CBDCs. The most notable ones are the launch of digital Swedish krona and the French central bank’s partnership with private players to test digital euro.

The discussion of a digital dollar is also igniting among the experts and legislators in the United States as China already put its digital yuan into public testing.