Banque De France selects 8 potential partners for CBDC experiment

The article was first produced in Decrypt. 

Link:: https://decrypt.co/36102/banque-de-france-selects-8-potential-partners-for-cbdc-experiment

By  Will Heasman

France’s central bank has picked eight of Europe’s leading fintech firms to take part in experimental trials for a digital euro.

In brief

• France’s central bank has picked eight fintech firms to take part in experiments trialing a CBDC.
• The firms taking part in the experiments include Accenture, HSBC and Seba Bank.
• France is one of several European countries vying to pioneer a digital euro.

The Banque De France, France’s central bank, has selected eight potential partners, including HSBC, Accenture, and Seba Bank, in its hunt to modernize interbank settlement via a central bank digital currency (CBDC).

As the institution heading the digital euro initiative, the Banque De France called on applicants in March to propose experimental CBDC frameworks to both refurbish interbank settlement and lay the foundations for a digital euro. Now, per a statement from the bank, the applicants have been chosen, and work is underway.

Who is taking part in the CBDC experiment?

The central bank’s favored few include Accenture, HSBC, Seba Bank, and ProsperUS, as well as Euroclear, a Belgium-based financial services company; Iznes, a blockchain-powered record-keeping platform for funds; LiquidSharem, a blockchain-based post-trade settlement for SMEs; and French financial institution Societe Generale’s Forge—a tech platform, designed to promote blockchain-based activity.

Within today’s announcement, the Banque De France laid out the specific criteria for the CBDC proposals, noting that they aim to “explore new methods of exchanging financial instruments,” but specifically excluding crypto-assets such as Bitcoin.

The experiments will also test CBDC regulations to improve the execution of cross-border payments, and revisit methods of making central bank money available.