The PFTDC of the National Bank of Kazakhstan spoke about the global relevance of CBDC and the progress of the Digital Tenge project on Astana Finance Days 2022

On June 28, 2022, the Payment and Financial Technologies Development Center of the National Bank of Kazakhstan (PFTDC) held a panel session “Digital Tenge and the world experience in implementing CBDC projects” at the Astana Finance Days conference.

The participants of the discussion talked about the role of digital currencies of central banks in the development of payment systems in Kazakhstan and in the world and how this will affect the global economy and markets. The participants noted the growing importance of such digital currencies, as evidenced by the latest reports of international organizations such as BIS (Bank for International Settlements) and IMF.

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Jamiel Sheikh, moderator of the session and co-founder of CBDC Think Tank: “According to the latest BIS study, about 90% of central banks around the world, which accounts for 90% of global GDP, are exploring the possibility of implementing CBDC. Last year I read the final report of the Digital Tenge project from the early draft stage. Probably, this team is doing one of the best work in the field of CBDC among all other central banks”.

The speakers spoke about the latest global and regional achievements on this issue. John Vellisarios, Managing Director of Accenture’s Global Office: “The big area is international payments and related CBDC projects not only on the scale of retail but also wholesale payments. This will really transform financial markets in the near future”.

The discussion also touched upon projects relevant to the CBDC world — what international transactions will look like in the future and how the landscape of the financial market will change with the advent of digital currencies. Daniel Heller, Independent Director of the AFSA Board of Directors: “If there is really wide access (to CBDC) with a reasonable amount that you can have and freely dispose of, then there will certainly be fundamental changes in the way we make payments and other things”.

The PFTDC team, in turn, spoke about the progress of the Digital Tenge project. Binur Zhalenov, Chairman of the Center for Development of Payment and Financial Technologies of the National Bank of Kazakhstan: “We believe that CBDC can become an important part of the national payment infrastructure only because it can provide a new feature of programmability and offline payments. Obviously, this can contribute to financial accessibility in places where the Internet connection is unstable”.

Ainur Kenzhayeva, Head of the Digital Tenge project: “The economic effect of the digital tenge will be evaluated using advanced modeling methods to obtain a quantitative assessment. For the first time, a combined micromodel and DSGE approach will be used in relation to CBDC”.

Reference:

The Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) is an independent jurisdiction that began operations in 2018. In accordance with the Development Strategy until 2025, the key task of the AIFC is to consolidate as a universal platform connecting the countries of the EAEU, Central Asia and the Caucasus. www.aifc.kz

AIFC Tech Hub– a division of the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC), whose task is to promote the development of a startup ecosystem, the venture industry market, e-commerce, corporate innovation and new technological directions in Kazakhstan (FinTech, GovTech, SatelliteTech, Industry 4.0. и etc.). Together with international partners, Tech Hub conducts programs to support market players, facilitates the structuring of venture deals and testing of new fintech solutions within the regulatory sandbox of the AIFC jurisdiction.  www.tech.aifc.kz