The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is investigating the use of a wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC) for financial securities settlements and large-value cross-border payments. This initiative is part of the central bank's Project Agila.
Harnessing Technology for Financial Efficiency
Wholesale CBDCs can enhance efficiency in the payments infrastructure and develop new financial services that could address evolving needs in the national payments ecosystem.
Eli M. Remolona, Jr., BSP Governor
- Potential to reduce settlement risks by minimizing time gaps between trade execution and final settlement.
- Utilizes distributed ledger technology for improved automation and lower transaction costs.
Project Agila, which comprises two phases, utilized Oracle's Hyperledger Fabric platform for its pilot tests. Six local financial institutions joined these tests, including BDO Unibank and Union Bank of the Philippines.
The scalability tests demonstrated the platform's capability to process over 105,000 transactions in a short timeframe, averaging around 1.5 seconds per transaction, with a minimal error rate.
However, the tests also revealed performance limitations when handling over 200,000 transactions daily, suggesting the need for further adjustments in cloud configurations.
Security concerns emerged during the evaluation, with high-severity vulnerabilities identified, including inadequate input sanitization and potential access to sensitive banking information. These issues will inform the BSP's forthcoming CBDC Roadmap.