Krungsri (Bank of Ayudhya PCL.) has launched the CBDC Krungsri mobile application for the pilot test of Retail CBDC, which is issued by the Bank of Thailand (BOT). The application allows users to buy products and services from merchants participating in the pilot Retail CBDC project which has been under development over the year and is currently in its trial phase.
Mr. Sayam Prasitsirigul, Krungsri Chief Information and Digital Officer said, “This pilot program is part of the Foundation Track initially rolled out in the area of the Bank of Thailand in February. We expanded the service area to Krungsri including merchants around the headquarters of Rama 3 and the Ploenchit office at the end of May and will continue until the third quarter of this year. Over 100 merchants in the Kru Wee market and food stores in the canteen participated, and more than 2,000 employees have been actively engaging in this pilot phase.”
Participants can download the CBDC Krungsri app from the App Store or Play Store. Once registration is complete, the user can top up and redeem their CBDC balance through their linked Krungsri bank account with 1 CBDC for 1 Thai baht throughout the pilot period.
The CBDC Krungsri app offers four key features: top-up, transfer, scan to pay, and redeem. The app can also offer the separation between personal and merchant users.
The CBDC Krungsri app provides specialized features for merchants’ specific needs:
- The app offers multiple separate wallets, providing convenient money management and separating between personal and business purposes.
- The merchant wallet can be shared with up to five users, facilitating seamless operations between multiple branches.
- In-app notifications and text-to-speech for incoming transactions are sent to merchants for verifying the accuracy of the received amount
- Merchants can flexibly choose their preferred time to redeem, either throughout the day or with an automatic redemption at the end of the day.
By the end of June 2023, Krungsri will expand the pilot phase from retail merchants to large corporates. This expansion aims to explore the synergy between the CBDC Krungsri platform and the operational systems of large corporates.
Additionally, the pilot will proceed to the Innovation Track in collaboration with the Bank of Thailand and other participants for the commercial use cases. This innovation track will be only a close-looped pilot and will not be available for end users and merchants at this stage.
The Retail CBDC project is currently in the experiment, aligning with the Bank of Thailand’s approach of focusing on ‘Pilot to Learn, Not Pilot to Launch’. The scope of this pilot is limited to approximately 10,000 pilot users without intention for public usage. Krungsri is committed to continuing our innovation and will leverage our capability in technology to supporting the Bank of Thailand’s CBDC project as we aim to develop and improve Thailand’s digital financial infrastructure and accelerate the country’s future financial landscape.
