Qatar’s central bank plans to digitalize most of its products, including studying and potentially developing and launching a CBDC. One of the other directives from the institution involves issuing digital bank licenses.
Qatar enters the CBDC race
Speaking to The Peninsula at the 8th Doha Islamic Finance Conference, QCB’s head of fintech, Alanood Abdullah Al Muftah, described the organisation’s new digital direction. The bank has begun to explore various initiatives which will become clearer in the coming months.
“We’re trying to study the different aspects and verticals of fintech. We’re trying to set our direction. Each central bank should study digital banks, considering their growing significance in the global market.”
The executive further affirmed the intentions of the bank to embark on the path of central bank digital currency, like many other central banks.
However, Al Muftah said the QCB is still a long way away from being ready to launch such a product. As of now, the bank is still in research mode to determine whether and how a CBDC could impact the local monetary landscape.
On the other hand, Narayanan Srinivasan, COO and Digital Officer at Dukhan Bank said at the same conference that his bank wants to establish a digital bank in Qatar. Additionally, they plan to use blockchain technology for some payment services.
CBDC Across the World
Aside from China, which has been among the global leaders in terms of CBDC development with multiple reported real-life tests, countless other nations have gone down that road in the past few years.
Jamaica’s central bank recently indicated that it wants to pay out $16 from its CBDC to the first 100,000 citizens who create a wallet by April 1.
Canada’s central banking authority teamed up with MIT to research the pros and cons of such a product, while India expects its CBDC to arrive by the end of 2022.
The United States is in fact at the end of its course. The country has had an indecisive approach for years without clearly determining whether to launch a CBDC. More recently, the Federal Reserve has also weighed in on the positives and negatives of a central bank digital currency.
