The National Bank of Kazakhstan (NBK) has created a separate institution that will lead the development and implementation of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in the country.
The National Bank of Kazakhstan has announced the reorganization of the Kazakhstan Interbank Settlement Center (KISC) and the creation of the National Payments Corporation (NPC), whose main purpose will be to oversee the digital tenge pilot project.
According to the NBK’s official statement, the NPC will be responsible for developing the financial infrastructure for the digital tenge. Moreover, among other responsibilities of the new institution will be the supervision of the national payment system, which will include the inspection of interbank settlements, money transfers, and digital identification.
The CBDC pilot project of Kazakhstan is testing the possibilities of the digital currency with the participation of real consumers and merchants. One of the main partners of the project is Binance — the digital tenge is tested on the BNB Chain. And recently it became known that the National Bank of Kazakhstan will conduct a direct test of SWIFT’s technical solution for cross-border payments with CBDCs.
