Home Digital Currencies Turkish central bank calls for companies to ‘enrich’ digital currency explorations Digital Currencies Turkish central bank calls for companies to ‘enrich’ digital currency explorations By Ian Hall – September 3, 2025, 4:51 pm FacebookTwitterPinterestWhatsAppLinkedinEmailPrint Ankara: home to the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye, which is welcoming project applications across five areas of interest | Credit: Beyzanur K. (Unsplash) Turkey’s central bank has issued a ‘call for participation’ for companies in the finance and technology sectors to ‘enrich’ its ongoing explorations into the potential launch of a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye (TCMB)’s directorate-general for payment systems and financial technologies announced the move today (3 September) via a seven-page ‘call for participation in the digital Turkish lira project ecosystem’ document (Turkish-language only), accompanied by a short press release (in English). The Ankara-headquartered authority is conducting studies to evaluate the feasibility of a CBDC and specifically wants to ‘demonstrate the potential features, test different technological infrastructures and system designs, and implement pilot applications.’ The central bank is welcoming project applications across five areas of interest: tokenisation, programmable payments, user-sovereign identity (also known as self-sovereign identity), interoperability with existing systems, and ‘machine-to-machine payment scenarios.’ Project applications can be submitted under one or more of the categories. Organisations can apply with a maximum of three projects. The deadline for applications for ‘first stage’ involvement is 15 October 2025. RELATED ARTICLE Turkish central bank progresses ‘digital lira’ tests – a news story (10 January 2023) on a previous milestone on the central bank’s CBDC journey – see below CBDC project’s second phase The TCMB is already relatively well progressed in its CBDC explorations – which it refers to as the ‘Digital Turkish Lira Project’. A ‘Digital Turkish Lira Collaboration Platform’ was established in 2021 via the signing memorandums of understanding with two companies – Aselsan and Havelsan – and TÜBİTAK (Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey), an institution affiliated with Turkey’s Ministry of Industry and Technology. Aselsan and Havelsan are best known as defence companies though they also operate in sectors including IT and software. The Digital Turkish Lira Project’s first phase focused on retail payments. By 2022, the necessary infrastructure had been developed, and the first successful payment transactions were completed in pilot tests at the end of the year. Pilot tests continued in 2023 and a 63-page ‘Digital Turkish Lira First Phase Evaluation Report’ was published (Turkish language – a 64-page English-language version was subsequently published). The second phase is now ongoing is focused on ‘develop[ing] projects encompassing new use cases, in addition to ongoing studies in technology, economics and law, and to enrich the Digital Turkish Lira Project ecosystem with additional participation.’ The central bank says it wants companies ‘to develop exemplary scenarios based on the categories and criteria outlined in the Call document, develop innovative projects based on these scenarios, and collaborate on them.’ ‘This will diversify the use of the Digital Turkish Lira, aiming to make it a key component of Turkey’s rapidly developing financial technology ecosystem,’ the central bank states. =>>> Global Government Fintech’s dedicated ‘Digital Currencies’ section <== Digital ID: ‘critical importance’ At a global level, CBDCs increasingly seem to be in the shadow of an alternative, and increasingly popular, type of digital currency – stablecoins, which are issued by private companies (that said, the US state of Wyoming last month made government fintech history by issuing the first fiat-backed, fully-reserved stablecoin issued by a public entity in the US). A Bank for International Settlements (BIS)’s survey about central banks’ CBDC activities during 2024 (published last month – August 2025) found that, of 93 central banks surveyed, 85 were exploring either a retail CBDC (for general population use), a wholesale CBDC (for interbank use) or both. But none of the few CBDCs currently ‘live’ globally are proving popular. In Turkey, plans to launch a ‘blockchain-based’ digital currency within four years were published in 2019 although CBDC research in the country pre-dates that. The central bank stated in December 2022 that ‘studies on the legal dimension show that digital identification is of critical importance’ to the CBDC project. A 2023 Presidential Annual Programme (Turkish language), published by the Presidency Strategy and Budget directorate in October 2022, included mention of CBDC. It stated that integration of a CBDC with ‘identity’ and central bank-operated instant payment system FAST ‘within the scope of research and development studies will be completed’. The 391-page document’s brief CBDC section also stated that research with banks would take place focused on wholesale CBDC. Turkey is the 17th largest economy in the world, according to the World Bank. The country has a population of about 85.5 million people. TAGSAselsanBank for International SettlementsBlockchainCBDCCentral Bank Digital CurrencyCentral Bank of the Republic of Türkiyedigital IDdigital Turkish liraHavelsanpaymentsprogrammable paymentsself-sovereign identitytokenisationTÜBİTAKTurkeyTürkiye FacebookTwitterPinterestWhatsAppLinkedinEmailPrint Previous articleUK Office for Investment capital head joins Lloyds Bank in new ’gov engagement’ role Ian HallIan is Global Government Fintech’s editor. He has formerly held roles including UK director of Euractiv (2011-2018), editor of Public Affairs News (2007-2011) and news editor of PR Week (2000-2007). He was shortlisted for ‘Editor of the Year’ at the British Society of Magazine Editors (BSME) Awards in 2010. He began his career in the Balkans at English-language weekly the Sofia Echo (Bulgaria: 1998-1999). Linkedin Twitter
