The Bank of Japan said on Friday it will move to the second phase of its experiment on issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) from April.

The move was widely expected, as the BOJ had said it will move to the next phase after completing the first phase of its CBDC experiment that was launched last April.

While the BOJ had made no decision yet whether to issue its own digital currency, Governor Haruhiko Kuroda told parliament in January it was proceeding with experiments and a plan to deliberate on specific designs of one.

(Reporting by Leika Kihara; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)