Mr. Sayam Prasitsirigul, Krungsri Chief Information and Digital Officer said, "After developing the CBDC Krungsri mobile application for the Retail CBDC and implementing it with participating merchants in a specific environment, including the local Kru Wee market and the Bank's food hall, we are expanding the test to more retailers for a more comprehensive test. We are collaborating with major retailers that usually have more complicated payment and accounting systems, and this will enable us to study a variety of real-use cases. The aim is to demonstrate the potential of Retail CBDC in facilitating seamless transactions across a wide range of retailers, from street merchants to large department stores and we are pleased to announce this collaboration with four leading businesses to participate in the Retail CBDC experiment."
The leading businesses that support the daily lifestyle of all users including, food and beverage, retail, and energy industries which are taking part in the test are:
- Tops and Eathai at Central Embassy - Central Food Retail Group under Central Retail
- Doi Tung coffee shop at Krungsri Head Office, Rama 3, and Krungsri Ploenchit Office - Mae Fah Luang Foundation under the royal patronage
- Bangchak Service Station Rama 3 - Bangchak Corporation Public Company Limited
- Inthanin at Krungsri Head Office, Rama 3 - Bangchak Corporation Public Company Limited
Krungsri has developed CBDC Krungsri application features to specifically meet the needs of large corporate merchants. New features include:
- The "CBDC Wallet Share" is a feature that divides the wallet into a Main Wallet and Sub Wallet, making it easier to manage funds between branches and the controller at the head office
- CBDC is the new payment method at the point of sale (POS) and integrates into the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) accounting system
- The "Automatic sales report" feature gathers daily sales reports separated by branches to the head office controller
- The "Auto Currency conversion" feature, which enables the conversion of CBDC to Thai Baht at the end of the day, supports corporate liquidity management
The pilot retail CBDC is scheduled to conclude in the third quarter of this year, and as yet, the BOT has no immediate plans to launch the Retail CBDC in production uses. The BOT will thoroughly evaluate its potential across a variety of areas. The outcomes of this trial are anticipated to benefit all organizations involved in the development of Thailand's digital baht infrastructure. Krungsri is fully committed to fostering a wide range of innovative technologies and is ready to support the BOT in delivering new financial landscape and building future Thailand's economic fundamentals.
Source: Spark Communications
