The French Central Bank Explores CBDCs For Debt Market: Report

The French central bank explores central bank digital currencies to fight the debt markets and is led by the Belgian financial services company Euroclear, the latest trial involves a system by tech giant IBM so let’s read more about it in our latest crypto news today.

The French central bank continues to explore central bank digital currencies after completing a trial of blockchain-based CBDC in the country’s debt market. More than 500 institutions in France participated in the 10-month experiment testing a CBDC issued by the Banque de France for bond deals with the government, the reports showed. The CBDC trial was led by Belgium-based financial services company Euroclear by using a system developed by the American technology giant IBM. The CBDC test involves a French public debt office alongside the central bank and the consortium of major financial companies that are operating in France like companies such as BNP Paribas, HSBC, Societe Generale, Credit Agricole CIB, and more.

As a part of the trial, the participants traded government bonds and security tokens which settles them using a CBDC that was supplied by the central bank. The project tested use cases of a CBDC in the range of everyday activities like issuing new bonds and using them in repurchase agreements as well as paying coupons and redeeming the deals. Euroclear executive Isabelle Delorme said:

“We have together successfully been able to measure the inherent benefits of this technology, concluding that the central bank digital currencies can settle central bank money safely and securely.”

As per Soren Mortensen, the global director of financial markets at IBM, the project went better than other blockchain initiatives because of the successfully trailed central securities depository and central bank processes while still cutting off the existing interim steps like reconciliation between the market intermediaries. After launching the experimental CBDC program back in March, the French central bank was consistently testing various CBDC use cases. Also, the bank tested a CBDC to simulate the settlement and delivery of the listed securities in collab with the Swiss crypto bank SEBA. The central bank piloted a CBDC to launch a $2.4 million worth of simulated shares using the private blockchain platform.