The Monetary Authority of Singapore announced Thursday that it plans to issue a “live” central bank digital currency (CBDC).

The regulator plans to partner with local banks, and the partnership will see a wholesale CBDC used “as a common settlement asset in domestic payments.”

“Retail customers will be able to use these tokenized bank liabilities in transactions with merchants who can in turn credit these tokenized bank liabilities with their respective banks,” MAS managing director Ravi Menon said.  

Prior to the announcement, MAS had only simulated issuing CBDCs in test environments. 

“The ‘live’ issuance of central bank digital money for use as a common…

Read more on Blockworks