Perry Warjiyo the Governor of the Bank of Indonesia has announced developments in its plans to launch a central bank digital currency, for various digital economic and financial transactions.
Warjiyo said the bank planned to release details on the conceptual design of a digital rupiah which is the currency equivalent of the country’s fiat and open the matter to public comment. According to the governor, the Bank of Indonesia intended for the digital rupiah to be integrated, interconnected, and interoperable with other countries’ CBDCs following discussions with central bank officials.
The CBDC initiative, called Project Garuda, will start with the launch of a wholesale digital rupiah for use cases of issuance, redemption, and interbank fund transfer followed by monetary operations and financial market development. The project’s white paper states that the third phase will deal with end-to-end transactions between wholesale and retail digital rupiah users.
Indonesia imposed a blanket ban on crypto payments starting in 2017, while trading in digital assets has largely remained legal in the country as regulated under the Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency. Warjiyo first announced plans for Indonesia to introduce a CBDC in May 2021 but did not provide a specific timeline for the digital currency’s release.
