Taiwan's FSC lets banks apply to pilot deposit tokens and says the tokens remain bank deposits in law

What happened

The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) of Taiwan opened applications on 22 Sep 2026 for banks to pilot deposit token business. The FSC announced the step in a Chinese-language press release. The English wording in this story is Anvesan's translation and may differ from any English version the FSC publishes.

The FSC said it acted in response to the development of real-world asset (RWA) tokenisation, and with reference to how deposit tokens are developing internationally. It said the pilots are meant to give banks room to develop practical operating models, technology applications and risk management for deposit tokens. The FSC said the pilots are also meant to serve as a reference for future adjustments to supervision and regulation.

What changed

The FSC set out how it classifies a deposit token. A bank that issues one presents a bank deposit in a new form of representation or record, such as a blockchain. The FSC said the token remains a bank deposit in law, and that the business is handled in principle under the current Banking Act and related rules.

The FSC treats the activity as an extension of an existing business model. Banks may therefore apply to the FSC for a pilot under the directions for business pilots by financial institutions (金融業申請業務試辦作業要點). The opening took effect on 22 Sep 2026.

An applicant must attach the documents those directions require. Its business plan must set out five matters:

• the scope of the pilot and the use cases;
• how tokens are issued, transferred, redeemed and destroyed, and how these steps differ from current deposit, remittance (transfer) and similar operations;
• the mechanisms for cross-checking, reconciling and controlling deposit accounting records against the token ledger;
• the technical architecture, how the system runs and its security controls, for example the distributed ledger or blockchain design, nodes, wallets and smart contracts;
• how tokens are redeemed and destroyed, and customer rights protected, when the pilot period ends or the pilot stops.

Who is affected

Banks that plan to issue deposit tokens can apply to the FSC for a pilot. The press release addresses banks only. It does not mention stablecoin issuers, virtual asset service providers or other non-bank firms.

What happens next

The press release gives no closing date for applications, no length for the pilot period and no limit on the number of banks. The FSC said it will keep following deposit token and RWA tokenisation trends in Taiwan and abroad. It said it will use the pilots to understand market demand, business operations and related risks, and will study changes to supervision and rules in due course. The FSC said it will balance financial innovation, market stability and customer protection.