Macau will launch a digital currency by the end of 2024, which “can serve as an example for Portuguese-speaking countries”, the financial regulator of the semi-autonomous Chinese region said on Monday.
The president of the Monetary Authority of Macao (AMCM), Benjamin Chan Sau San, was speaking during the second Conference of Central Bank Governors and Financial Officials between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries, which is taking place in Macao.
At the opening ceremony of the event, the leader of the territory’s government, Ho Iat Seng, said that the aim is to “demonstrate to the public the functions and applications of the future” Macao digital pataca (e-Mop) by the end of the year.
The chief executive said the measure will also serve to celebrate the region’s 25th anniversary, following the transfer of Macau’s administration from Portugal to China on December 20.
Ho Iat Seng’s term ends on December 19, and the new leader is expected to take office the following day, expected to be former magistrate Sam Hou Fai, the only candidate in the vote scheduled for October 13.
Ho Iat Seng said the development of e-Mop had “the support of the central authorities and the advanced technology” of the People’s Bank of China and is in line with the “trend of global development of central bank digital currency.”
China was the world’s first major economy to launch a digital currency, the digital renminbi or e-CNY, in August 2020.
In a statement released during Monday’s conference, AMCM said it is building “a prototype system with basic functions by the end of this year” for Macau’s digital pataca.
The regulator explained that, once the system is built, it will carry out tests in a controlled environment, exploring the situations in which the new currency can be applied and assessing, “in compliance with the principle of prudence, the different types of risks”.
Furthermore, the regulator said, the tests will serve to “establish laws and regulations that adapt to the current situation of the Macau market, adequately preparing for the official launch” of the digital pataca.
The AMCM stressed that, unlike private cryptocurrencies (the best known of which is Bitcoin), e-Mop will be “a legal tender”, with the same legal status and monetary value as physical pataca coins and notes.
At the end of 2022, Macau approved a legal regime for the creation and issuance of currency that, for the first time, now includes “currency in digital format”.
However, at the time, the Secretary for Economy and Finance, Lei Wai Nong, said that the conditions were not yet right to move forward with a digital currency in Macau and assured that the legal regime was designed with the long term in mind.
Source: www.jornaldenegocios.pt
