France Completes 10-Month CBDC Trial
- Led by Euroclear, the CBDC trial was conducted with the help of Banque de France, BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole CIB, HSBC, and Société Générale.
- As part of the test, almost 500 instructions in both primary and secondary markets were executed.
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The central bank of France has successfully completed a 10-month long pilot that involved the use of CBDC in government bond deals, The Financial Times reported on 19 October.
According to the publication, the CBDC trial was led by Euroclear, a Belgium-based financial services firm, and involved the Banque de France and a group of France’s largest financial market participants, including BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole CIB, HSBC, and Société Générale. The system used in the trial was developed by U.S.-based technology giant IBM.
As part of the trial, participants had to trade government bonds and security tokens, which were then settled using a CBDC supplied by Banque de France. A report published on Euroclear’s website also revealed that almost 500 instructions were executed during the trial, in both primary and secondary markets. A number of CBDC use cases were also tested in a range of everyday activities, including issuing new bonds, repurchase agreements, paying coupons, and redeeming deals. The global director of financial markets at IBM, Soren Mortensen, said in a statement:
“This project went well beyond previous blockchain initiatives because it successfully tested most central securities depository and central bank processes whilst eliminating current interim steps, such as reconciliation between market intermediaries. We are rapidly moving towards fundamental change in the post-trade market infrastructure.”
This pilot could be considered the largest CBDC experiment conducted in the EU to date. Banque de France has been consistently exploring various CBDC use cases, and became the first to test a digital euro in May 2020. Since then, the bank has completed a number of experiments using CBDC, such as processing $2.4 million worth of funds using the digital euro, and settling securities transactions in collaboration with Swiss crypto bank SEBA.
- The bill will serve as the legal foundation for the European Central Bank’s ongoing technical work on a euro-based CBDC.
- The European Commission is also planning to call the public for comments next month on how the digital euro could be used.
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- Korea’s central bank concluded that the CBDC “works normally” under test conditions, but more experiments were needed to confirm its viability in the real world.
- The second phase will focus on cross-border remittance and retail and offline payments, and is expected to finish by June 2022.
- As part of the trial, the Bank of Jamaica issued 236 million JMD (around $1.6 million)worth of the CBDC.
- During an event sponsored by the National Commercial Bank in December, 53 consumers were able to test person-to-person, cash-in, and cash-out CBDC transactions.