According to sources, the Bank of Korea plans to restart CBDC testing.

According to Mars Finance, the Bank of Korea has recently sent a formal document regarding the second round of CBDC testing to major banks. An official from the Bank of Korea stated that “details including specific methods and timelines are currently under discussion.” The second round of testing is considering the distribution of part of the government subsidies in the form of digital money. The goal is to use CBDC to restrict the use of subsidies and drop the management and administrative costs associated with the distribution of subsidies. The Bank of Korea previously launched a three-month CBDC pilot project in April, with a total of seven participating banks, but later suspended the project. At that time, the pilot project was criticized for its limited practical application value and the burden of billions of Korean won in costs imposed on participating banks.