Qatar is going to join a growing range of countries experimenting with the central bank digital currency (CBDC) concept. The Qatar Central Bank (QCB) is currently “in the foundation stage” of issuing its digital currency.
The Qatar Central Bank (QCB) is in the early stages of creating a central bank digital currency (CBDC). This comes as many governments around the world look into launching their own CBDCs in the midst of a rapid digital revolution in the financial industry.
QCB Governor H.E. Sheikh Bandar bin Mohammed bin Saoud Al Thani said yesterday at the Qatar Economic Forum, Powered by Bloomberg, that the central bank is working to find the right technology and platform to issue Qatar’s CBDC. CBDC is a virtual money created by a central bank that is also considered a digital form of a country’s flat currency.
“Many central banks are thinking about issuing CBDC right now, and so are we.” We are still in the beginning stages, though. The QCB Governor said, “We are weighing the pros and cons of giving out CBDC and looking for the best technology and platform to do so.”
The Governor said of crypto technology,
“At the moment, crypto are a technical innovation.” It could be the start of a new era of fast, cheap, and easy-to-find financial services. But crypto assets that aren’t backed by central banks might not be as reliable.”
During the interview, the QCB Governor said that Qatar's monetary and exchange rate policies will remain the same. He also noted that the diversity of the central bank's portfolio makes it more flexible during global crises.
The governor also noted that QCB's portfolio is well diversified with investments in Europe, the United States and the Far East.
“There are different currencies in our portfolio, and this has always been our strategy, to diversify and not to depend on one currency before all of these global incidents (war in Ukraine) happened. And we will continue to do so. We are very confident about our portfolio,”
he said, adding that Qatar would continue this strategy with new solutions.
We will have an interesting article on "Central Banks and Cryptocurrency" in the coming days. Including the attitude of Islamic finance to it. After all, Qatar is a Muslim country, and according to Dr. Ali Al Garadaghi, Secretary General of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, investing in cryptocurrencies and their analogues, such as digital currencies, is prohibited (forbidden) by Sharia law due to several reasons. What is the attitude of Qatar and Islamic countries to this attitude? We will continue to discuss these questions.