The central bank of France conducted its fifth CBDC experiment with the collaboration of BNP Paribas Securities Services, CIC Market Solutions, and many others.
The news was published on the official website of Banque de France. This phase of the trial tested the integration “of issuance and settlement activities, including exchanges on the secondary market.”
“The experiment involved the simulation on a private blockchain of the issuance and settlement of unlisted securities and of the settlement of listed securities. Settlements of securities were simulated by central bank digital currency issued on the blockchain.”
Banque de France website
The initiative of LiquidShare also gathered other major institutions like Axa Investment Managers, BNP Paribas Securities Services, CACEIS Bank, CIC Market Solutions, Crédit Agricole Titres, Euroclear, Euronext, Kriptown, La Banque Postale, Caisse des Dépôts, ODDO BHF, ODDO BHF AM, OFI AM and Société Générale Securities Services.
“The programme’s other experiments are ongoing and all the lessons learned will be an important part of the Banque de France’s contribution to the Eurosystem’s more global reflection on the benefits of CBDC.”
Banque de France website
Banque de France also collaborated with the central bank of Switzerland in June. The partnership focuses on bank-to-bank transactions.
“Project Jura” represents the first plan where two digital central bank currencies will be tested together.
Private firms like Credit Suisse, R3, SIX Digital Exchange, UBS, and Natixis are also part of the trial. Project Jura will explore cross-border agreements of two wholesale central bank digital currencies and a French digital financial instrument.
Jura will run on a distributed ledger technology platform which will allow transactions to be immediate. Before they go through, transactions will have to be digitally signed and approved by both central banks of Switzerland and France.
This is the last phase of “Project Helvetia” launched by the central bank of Switzerland, which investigated tokenized assets with wholesale CBDCs. Anyhow, Jura is just in an experimental phase, and it doesn’t mean a digital currency will be issued.
