{"id":7277,"date":"2021-08-06T14:39:06","date_gmt":"2021-08-06T13:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/?p=7277"},"modified":"2021-08-06T14:39:16","modified_gmt":"2021-08-06T13:39:16","slug":"national-bank-of-cambodia-explores-bakong-cross-border-transactions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/national-bank-of-cambodia-explores-bakong-cross-border-transactions\/","title":{"rendered":"National Bank of Cambodia explores Bakong cross-border transactions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Cambodia\u2019s digital money project Bakong is working closely with Thailand's central bank and Malaysia's largest bank<\/a>, Maybank to execute CBDC cross-border transactions.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\"National<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) announced various project milestones as part of its central bank digital currency-like program known as Bakong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chea Serey, the director-general of NBC and the Bakong project manager\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n <\/g>\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n <\/clipPath>\r\n <\/defs><\/svg><\/span><\/a>, told The Nikkei on Wednesday that Bakong's electronic wallet had 200,000 users in June, up from 100,000 three months earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bakong payment and money transfer service, which is based on blockchain technology, was first offered by NBC in October 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the first half of 2021, the digital money project had approximately 6 million users, including those reached indirectly through member bank mobile apps, with 1.4 million transactions totalling nearly $500 million, according to Serey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NBC is presently studying cross-border transactions through Bakong<\/a>, according to the official, and is working closely with Thailand's central bank and Malaysia's largest bank, Maybank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cross-border Bakong transactions, according to Serey, will allow Cambodians living abroad with a “secure and quick means to send money to their family.” Many Cambodian women travelling to Malaysia will benefit from the new payment mechanism, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to reports, Bakong's introduction has greatly expanded the use of Cambodia's native currency, the riel, which is used alongside the US dollar under the country's dual-currency system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She added, however, that the digital money project alone will not be able to convert Cambodia's economy from one based on the US dollar to one based on the riel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are additional policies that need to be in place, such as having a stable exchange rate and inflation rate,\u201d Serey said, adding that Bakong's objective is to “expand the usage of the local currency,” with the long-term goal of having the country's local currency<\/a> be used “exclusively.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US dollar is currently utilized for 90% of financial transactions in Cambodia, according to data from the Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NBC's director-general also expressed reservations about Bitcoin (BTC), the world's most valuable cryptocurrency. To prevent the implications of unpredictable prices, Serey believes the crypto business requires regulation and consumer protection measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are no fundamentals, and if you allow investors to go into this\u2026 Who is going to take responsibility when the market crashes?\u201d he asks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bakong is a mobile app developed by NBC in partnership with Soramitsu, a Japanese blockchain technology startup. It allows Cambodians to pay at stores or send money using a smartphone app,<\/a> and it supports settlements and remittances in the riel or US dollars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bakong should not be referred to as a CBDC, but rather as a payment and money transfer service, according to Serey, who spoke during the project's debut.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cambodia\u2019s digital money project Bakong is working closely with Thailand’s central bank and Malaysia’s largest bank, Maybank to execute CBDC cross-border transactions. The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) announced various project milestones as part of its central bank digital currency-like program known as Bakong. Chea Serey, the director-general of NBC and the Bakong project manager […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":7288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,21],"tags":[2008,2006,2007],"class_list":["post-7277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrencies","category-news","tag-bakong","tag-cambodia","tag-cross-border"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/National-Bank-of-Cambodia-explores-Bakong-cross-border-transactions-1-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}