Riyadh: The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) and the United Arab Emirates Central Bank (UAECB) have issue a joint statement clarifying the objectives of launching the common digital currency project "Aber".
“Aber is for use in financial settlements between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and UAE through Blockchains and Distributed Ledgers technologies,” said the statement.
The statement pointed out that central banks in some countries have already begun pilot projects to explore the dimensions of Blockchains and Distributed Ledgers technologies applied in circulation of digital currencies.
SAMA and the Central Bank of UAE share the same desire to launch pilot projects in the use of these technologies to identify them and learn how to benefit from them.
The statement attributed the agreement to launch this project jointly rather than independently in each country to the fact that the two countries have in place central systems for remittances and domestic transactions which have evolved over time and proved their feasibility.
The project will also enable considering the possibility of using the system as an additional reserve system for domestic central payments settlement system in case of their disruption for any reason.
As for the mechanism agreed upon by SAMA and UAECB for the implementation of "Aber" project, the statement emphasised that concentration in the initial stages will be on technical aspects.
The use of the currency will be restricted to a limited number of banks in each state. In case no technical obstacles are encountered, economic and legal requirements for future uses will be considered.
The Emirates News Agency (WAM) had said that the Saudi-Emirati cryptocurrency is one of the seven initiatives that will be implemented in both countries.
“The new coin is not for the public, rather it is a way for national and local banks to transfer money between each country,” said the agency.