Taiwan has no timetable for launching a digital currency, although it is not against it, central bank Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) said yesterday after an inspection tour of the bank’s Financial Information Service Co (FISC, 財金資訊), which oversees the nation’s banking payment and settlement systems.
Yang understands why China is keen on issuing a digital currency, for pragmatic and other reasons, but Taiwan does not share the sense of urgency, he said.
“Taiwan is not lagging global peers on the matter, and the idea is not at the top of the bank’s priority list,” Yang said.
The bank has not set a timetable for the development of a digital currency, not only because cash circulation remains quite convenient and is relatively low cost, but because it is on the rise, he said.
The bank wants to first boost the use of electronic payments via mobile devices, he said.
The bank had earlier said that it had established a special task force to study the possibility of a digital currency, as technology is reshaping the world.
The group is to release a report on the issue in the first half of this year, and tap other experts to help build an experimental platform and start trial runs in the second half of the year. Last month, it panned China’s upcoming digital currency as “plain.”
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