Korea’s CBDC trial went ahead after largely internal security checks, with reportedly no evidence of an independent post-test review.
South Korea’s central bank ran its first live central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot without a regulatory security inspection or an independent post-test audit, according to a report from Maeil Business Newspaper, a South Korean business daily.
From April to June 2025, the central bank implemented the first live phase of Project Hangang, which is based on an integrated wholesale CBDC platform that incorporates bank-issued deposit tokens.
But the Financial Supervisory Service, which is the financial watchdog for the South Korea banks, conducted no separate security inspection throughout the three-month pilot, according to the report, citing documents provided by the regulator to the country lawmaker Lee Heon-seung from the ruling People Power Party.
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Instead, the project relied on a pre-launch security review and vulnerability checks by the Financial Security Institute, a banking-sector cybersecurity body, SK Shieldus, a Korean security company, and internal teams at Woori Bank and NongHyup Bank, two participating lenders.
That structure meant some of the institutions being tested were also helping assess themselves, while the documents reportedly showed no independent security audit after customers began making real transactions.
Self-Assessed Security, Wider Pilot
The Bank of Korea later acknowledged public concerns that deposit tokens could be vulnerable to cyberattacks. Still, it dismissed them in its own pilot report, arguing that the system had undergone a thorough security review before launch.
But that assurance came from the institution running the experiment rather than an independent third party. The central bank told the newspaper that its pre-launch checks were strong enough, adding that the process followed the Financial Supervisory Service’s procedures.
The Bank of Korea launched Project Hangang’s second phase in March 2026, expanding participation from seven banks to nine and planning features such as person-to-person transfers and programmable deposit tokens for government subsidies.
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