A bilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been signed by the financial technology association for Thailand and Hungary to support the introduction of blockchain technology to their respective financial sectors.
Takeaway Points
- Hungary and Thailand’s financial technology signs MOU to support the introduction of blockchain technology into their financial sectors.
- Hungary placed 8th on the 2022 Global Adoption index released in September for digital currency growth
- Bank of Thailand announced that it anticipates starting a pilot of a retail CBDC by the end of 2022
- Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has enacted some restrictions on crypto this year
- The Governor of the Hungarian National Bank says crypto trading and mining “serviced illegal activities” and are “speculative”.
Financial technology for Hungary and Thailand to support direct cooperation
The Hungary embassy in Bangkok made a post on Facebook that the signed MOU by the Thai FinTech Association (TFA) and the Hungarian Blockchain coalition on 25th October, will help the two associations “share experiences, best practices and explore areas potentially beneficial for direct cooperation”.
Chonladet Khemarattana, TFA president said in an October 29 report from the Bangkok Post that, e-commerce, mobile payments, and digital currencies are growing rapidly in Thailand and international cooperation is needed to further develop the local financial technology. He cited that the country was placed 8th on the 2022 Global crypto Adoption index released in September by an analytics firm Chainalysis, and crypto payment company Triple A estimates almost 6.5% of the population owns cryptocurrency, which he further pointed out that 20% of the world’s crypto holders are in Thailand.
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The Hungarian Blockchain coalition was jointly created by the country’s Ministry of Innovation and Technology, and the National Data and Economy knowledge center in March 2022, whereas the Thia FinTech Association is a nonprofit founded in 2016 with the aim of representing the local financial technology industry including cryptocurrency exchanges.
This agreement came to be in September as Thailand’s Central bank, along with some of the country’s commercial banks were involved in the testing of a cross-border whole-scale Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) transaction platform using distributed ledger technology.
The bank of Thailand also announced in August that it anticipates starting a pilot of a retail CBDC by the end of 2022 among about 10,000 users in the private sector. It will test the digital currency using “cash-like activities” such as paying for goods or services.
Ban on the use of cryptocurrencies for payment
Meanwhile, Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has enacted some restrictions on crypto this year, with it banning the use of cryptocurrency payments in March saying they “could affect the stability of the financial system”. The regulator is also cracking down on crypto-leading platforms with the SEC planning to prohibit crypto exchanges from providing or supporting digital assets depository services
Hungary also takes a similar strict stance on cryptocurrencies. In February, György Matolcsy, governor of the Hungarian National Bank, made a ban on all crypto trading and mining across the European Union saying it “serviced illegal activities” and was “speculative”.
