Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates (CBUAE) announced the launch of the "Financial Infrastructure Transformation Program," a new program with nine key objectives. One of these goals is to investigate and create a central bank digital currency (CBDC) that can be used for both domestic and cross-border transactions, crypto media outlet Bitcoin.com reported on February 14.

A domestic card program, eKYC, a central bank digital currency (CBDC), open finance, supervisory technology, an innovation hub, an instant payments platform, a financial cloud, and improving customer experience are among the nine initiatives that make up the Financial Infrastructure Transformation Program (FIT). With the intention of reducing cross-border payment inefficiencies and fostering innovation in domestic payments, the CBDC is created for both cross-border payments and domestic use.

The CBUAE has announced that when each initiative is completed, implementation updates will be released. The purpose is to "improve UAE competitiveness" as a global leader in financial and digital payments. The UAE's FIT program and CBDC plan follow the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority's recent CBDC pilot operation (SAMA).

The FIT program will be fully integrated by 2026.

Source: BITCOIN.COM