The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to strengthen its legal, operational, and cybersecurity foundations as it advances plans to explore a wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC), highlighting the growing complexity of building next-generation financial infrastructure.
The recommendations, contained in a technical assistance report released on June 5, stem from an IMF mission conducted between November and December 2024 under the BSP’s Project Agila, an initiative evaluating whether a wholesale digital peso could improve the efficiency of the country’s payment and settlement systems.
While the IMF acknowledged the BSP’s progress in studying digital currency applications, it stressed that successful implementation will require more than technological readiness.
The fund said the central bank should devote sufficient resources and assemble multidisciplinary teams capable of addressing legal, operational, technological, and policy challenges associated with a wholesale CBDC.
Central to the IMF’s recommendations is the establishment of a robust legal framework that would provide regulatory certainty for future experimentation and any eventual issuance of a digital currency. The report also called for clear key performance indicators to measure progress and assess whether pilot projects deliver tangible benefits.
Cybersecurity emerged as a major focus, reflecting global concerns over digital financial systems. The IMF warned that as financial market infrastructure becomes increasingly digitalized, risk management frameworks must evolve to guard against cyber threats and operational disruptions.
The report also highlighted the importance of continued engagement with banks, regulators, government agencies, and market participants. According to stakeholder consultations conducted under Project Agila, promising use cases include the settlement of tokenized government securities and faster, more efficient cross-border payments.
The IMF further advised the BSP to continuously refine its roadmap based on stakeholder feedback and market developments. Such an approach, it said, would help ensure that any future wholesale CBDC strengthens the efficiency, resilience, and competitiveness of the Philippine financial system while supporting broader economic development objectives.
For the BSP, the message is clear: technological innovation must be matched by equally strong legal and institutional safeguards.
