Bank Indonesia Governor Agus Martowardojo has stressed that the planned issuance of digital rupiah will not happen anytime soon.

Time was needed for research on the necessity of a virtual currency, to assure that such currency would not disrupt financial stability, Agus said in Jakarta on Tuesday, as reported by kompas.com.

“It takes time. It could be one to two years from now,” Agus said, adding that BI, along with central banks of other countries, was monitoring the development of digital currencies like bitcoin.

Previously, former finance minister Chatib Basri said that, to counter the circulation of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, the central bank needed to issue a digital currency as an official payment instrument that could be monitored.

No other central banks across the world had issued such currency so far, but several countries, such as Singapore, Canada and Ecuador, had started pilot projects for digital currency, he added.

BI payment system policy department head Onny Widjanarko said Indonesia had not decided on when to start a pilot project for the digital rupiah, as the central bank was still considering many aspects, particularly the negative impacts of the issuance of digital currency.

Onny explained that BI needed to prepare a number of applications before deciding further steps on the issuance of digital currency to prevent any negative impacts that could destabilize monetary, financial and payment systems. (bbn)

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