South Korea launches the second phase of its CBDC pilot, adding transfer functions and more participating banks

Foresight News reports that, according to the official website of the Korean Financial Services Commission, the Korean Financial Services Commission approved five innovative financial services at its regular meeting on July 15. Among them, the second phase of the deposit token payment and settlement test within the Korean central bank CBDC system (the "Han River Project") will officially proceed: Gyeongnam Bank and iM Bank have been added as participating institutions, while the specifications for the original seven banks (KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Woori, Hana, NongHyup, IBK, Busan) have been upgraded. The main changes include: the deposit token wallet limit increased from 100 thousand to 500 thousand; the holding limit per wallet raised from 1 million KRW (total 5 million KRW) to 10 million KRW (total 100 million KRW); transfer functionality added to the existing payment features; and direct payment methods introduced through smart contracts.

Additionally, the meeting approved the joint low-interest loan service for small and medium-sized enterprises and individual business owners by Kakao Bank and Busan Bank, as well as the prepaid card service for foreign visitors to Korea by Naver Financial and Orange Square (limit of 1 million KRW), with the latter not requiring verification of local identity in Korea.