South Korea’s central bank governor calls on global banking regulators to speed up CBDC development

Rhee Chang-yong, Governor of the Bank of Korea (BOK), called on global bank regulatory agencies to accelerate the development of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

During his speech at a financial conference held in Seoul, he revealed that central banks must launch retail CBDC products to prevent the widespread adoption of stablecoins. Due to the lack of clear regulation, stablecoins pose a significant risk to global financial stability.

Rhee Chang-yong mentioned the highly anticipated stablecoin crash in 2022, particularly the decoupling of TerraUSD (UST) which resulted in the evaporation of billions of dollars of investor funds. Banking regulatory agencies pointed out that UST's spread to mainstream finance is partly due to the central bank's strong support for retail CBDCs.