Central bank's digital currency effort gets a legal office

The Bank of Korea holds a kick-off ceremony of a legal counseling office dedicated to Central Bank Digital Currency which launched Monday.

The Bank of Korea established a legal counseling office for the development of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), the bank said Monday.

CBDC is a digital currency issued by a central bank.

The legal counseling team "will go over legal issues and requirements in regards to a CBDC,” the bank said in a release Monday. “The bank is operating the legal counseling team in order to select subjects for external research, that will begin in the latter half of the year, and also evaluate the results.”

The team has six members including five external experts who specialize in law and IT and one member from the bank.

The bank said the team will be assembled for one year though May 2021. The team may be maintained.

In April, the bank initiated a pilot project on the subject of the CBDC to begin legal and technological research on the implementation of the new cryptocurrency as major countries around the world started to take the concept seriously, including China and the United States. The pilot project will run through next year, the bank said.

BY JIN EUN-SOO [jin.eunsoo@joongang.co.kr]