Qatar Explores Digital Banks and CBDCs

Qatar’s central bank is planning to digitize most of its products and potentially develop and launch a central bank digital currency ( CBDC). Speaking to The Peninsula at the 8th Doha Islamic Finance Conference last week, Alanood Abdullah Al-Muftah, the head of the finTech section at Qatar central bank, said that the bank will look into “the different aspects and verticals of fintech.” “We’re currently trying to study the different aspects and verticals of fintech. We’re trying to set our direction. In the next couple of months, there will be a greater understanding of the future focus of QCB. Each central bank should study digital banks, considering their growing significance in the global market,” Al-Muftah said. “We also see the direction of the market moving towards having a digital currency. However, it’s still being studied whether we’re having a digital currency or not,” Al-Muftah added. The Qatar government’s vision is in line with an International Monetary Fund (IMF) study, which showed that 76% of Arab central banks are increasingly showing interest in digital currencies. Qatar Banned Cryptocurrencies While the Middle Eastern country is looking towards the adoption of digital currencies, it recently put the brakes on cryptocurrencies. In January 2020, the country announced through the Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Authority (QFCRA) that crypto trading services may not be conducted in or from the Qatar financial c...