Iranian central bank completes pre-pilot stage of CBDC development

The Monetary and Banking Research Institute (MBRI), a division of the Central Bank of Iran, said it had completed the preliminary phase of the development of the digital rial.

The head of the Central Bank’s office for payment system oversight, Reza Mani Yekta, noted that the regulator plans to expand the scale of the experiment with CBDC in the country’s payment system, but does not want to rush its rollout.

“The pre-pilot phase has concluded successfully with valuable achievements. The project will soon be rolled out in other ecosystems and will be used by a large number of users”, the official said.

The CBDC is expected to be regulated similarly to the national currency and to be distributed among individuals and banks, added Mani Yekta.

Of the 10 Iranian financial institutions that submitted applications to participate in the CBDC project, the experimental phase included: Bank Melli, Bank Mellat and Bank Tejarat.

Earlier in January, Iran and Russia began discussingthe creation of a gold-backed stablecoin.

In August 2022, Iranian media reported the first import operation worth $10 million with payment in cryptocurrency.