Taiwan’s central bank is working with the Financial Information Service Co. and 12 financial institutions to advance a tokenized gold passbook application, with the system expected to go on-chain before the end of the year, according to ABMedia. Under the current process, gold passbook customers cannot make withdrawals across banks, and applying for physical gold takes about two weeks. Once the new system is live, customers would use a Non-Fungible Token (NFT) as a withdrawal certificate and collect physical gold at a designated branch of a participating institution.
Central bank expands tokenized finance trials
ABMedia reported that Taiwan’s central bank began a tokenized finance trial program in 2024 and has been working with the Financial Information Service Co. and the Taiwan Depository and Clearing Corporation on tokenized financial infrastructure.
This year, the central bank is running two main trials. The first combines the Financial Information Service Co. with 12 commercial banks in a Financial Blockchain Consortium, turning gold passbook operations into a Gold Token model. The second links that consortium with a Real World Assets Tokenization Platform built by securities-related institutions to test whether asset tokens, deposit tokens and interbank settlement tokens can be brought together on one platform.
NFT certificates are meant to speed up physical gold withdrawals
The tokenization plan for gold passbook services is aimed at fixing operational pain points in the traditional financial system. At present, customers cannot withdraw across banks and must return to the original institution where the account was opened to complete the process at a branch counter. Under the proposed setup, an NFT certificate would remove that restriction and give customers more flexibility over where they can collect physical gold.
ABMedia said the upgrade is expected to reduce the time needed for cross-institution physical gold withdrawals from 14 days to 3 days. The trial is also intended to reduce operating time and time costs, while avoiding market fragmentation if different tokenization platforms develop separately in the future.
Twelve institutions are participating, with Bank of Taiwan leading the pilot
The 12 institutions in the Financial Blockchain Consortium are Bank of Taiwan, Land Bank of Taiwan, Taiwan Cooperative Bank, Hua Nan Bank, Chang Hwa Bank, Mega International Commercial Bank, The Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank, Taiwan Business Bank, SinoPac Bank, E.SUN Bank, CTBC Bank and NEXT Bank.
The current trial plan gives the lead role to Bank of Taiwan, described in the report as the institution with the largest business scale. The system build-out and on-chain deployment are scheduled for completion before year-end. ABMedia said the program would later be expanded to the other 11 participating public, private and digital banking institutions.
Key points from the report
- Taiwan’s central bank, the Financial Information Service Co. and 12 banks are building a Financial Blockchain Consortium for gold passbook tokenization.
- NFT-based withdrawal certificates are planned to support cross-bank physical gold withdrawals.
- The processing time target is to cut withdrawals from about two weeks to 3 days.
- The consortium will also connect with a Real World Assets Tokenization Platform to test integration of asset tokens, deposit tokens and interbank settlement tokens.
- Bank of Taiwan is the first pilot institution, with system completion and on-chain launch planned before year-end.