Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas officials anticipate completing the strategic roadmap for a wholesale central bank digital currency by October, according to Deputy Governor Mamerto E. Tangonan.
Deputy Governor Tangonan said the bank will require three additional months to draft and approve the roadmap, and that a formal launch date will be set only after the document is finalized.
The roadmap will chart initiatives, stakeholder participation, timelines, and deliverables for exploring, testing, and developing use cases that address real constraints in the country’s payments system.
Insights from the first phase of Project Agila indicate that wholesale digital currencies could support interbank fund transfers, securities settlements, and large‑value cross‑border payments, opportunities deemed economically viable.
Officials are also assessing whether the wholesale digital currency could function as a backup to the Real‑Time Gross Settlement system, a possibility that remains to be proven.
In parallel, Project Agila 2 aims to broaden public access to government bonds by enabling the government, securities issuers, and dealers to settle bond purchases with wholesale digital currencies, thereby extending bond ownership to more Filipinos.
Project Agila serves as the pilot program to evaluate the introduction of wholesale digital currencies and their potential applications.
Wholesale digital currencies are issued as central bank liabilities and are intended for banks and financial institutions to settle interbank payments, securities transactions, and cross‑border payments using distributed ledger technology and tokenization to enhance automation and processing speed.
Potential benefits highlighted include closing gaps in the payments space, reducing transaction costs and settlement risks, facilitating round‑the‑clock settlement, and enabling interoperability with other payment systems and financial market infrastructures.
