The ASEAN Financial Innovation Network is partnering with enterprise software provider R3 on a sandbox to enable banks and fintechs to build and test central bank digital currency (CBDC) applications, and drive its innovation globally.
The collaboration will see select APIs and documentation of R3 Sandbox for Digital Currencies made accessible to financial institutions and fintechs on the API Exchange (APIX), AFIN’s open architecture API marketplace, in August 2021.
This will allow them to build CBDC applications for new payment rails and multi-currency payment systems, AFIN said in an announcement on Wednesday.
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CBDC initiatives have gained momentum globally, with central banks, commercial banks and fintechs advancing the deployment of CBDC pilots and national blockchain payment systems. Central banks in Asean trialing CDBCs include Cambodia, Thailand, and Singapore's long-running Project Ubin.
«There has been an increasing interest in the deployment of blockchain technologies, which has created a strong demand for more efficient international payment settlements compatible with these technologies,» Sopnendu Mohanty, MAS chief fintech officer, said.
