The ASEAN Financial Innovation Network launches digital currency sandbox

The not-for-profit entity jointly formed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the International Finance Corporation and the Asean Bankers Association has partnered with global enterprise software firm R3 to launch the sandbox on the API Exchange (APIX) platform.

APIX is a cross-border open-innovation platform that serves as a curated global marketplace for application programming interfaces, or APIs, for financial institutions and fintechs. Select APIs from the R3 Sandbox for digital currencies will be available from August 2021. The sandbox runs on the Corda blockchain platform and allows participants to collaborate and evaluate CBDC use cases, as well as to learn, transact, and test roll-out strategies.

Developers will also be able to create and edit code and integrate APIs across solution domains in APIX's marketplace by leveraging the cloud-based integrated development environment.

This collaboration equips financial institutions and fintechs that are part of APIX with tools to build CBDC applications for new payment rails and multi-currency payment systems.