France’s Central Bank Eyes 8 Potential Partners For CBDC Experiment

France’s central bank eyes 8 potential partners for the latest CBDC trial for a digital euro as we are reading more about it in the latest altcoin news.

The companies taking part in the experiments include HSBC, Seba Bank, and Accenture. France is one of the few European countries that are trying to pioneer a digital euro. France’s Central Bank, The Banque De France, selected 8 potential partners including HSBC, Seba Bank, and Accenture to try and modernize the settlement via a central bank digital currency. As the institution is heading the digital euro initiative, the Banque de France called the applicants back in March to propose experimental CBDC framework to refurbish the interbank settlement and to lay the ground for a digital euro. According to a statement from the bank, the applicants were chosen and the work is already underway.

🗞️[Communiqué] À l’issue du dépouillement des dossiers reçus le 15 mai dernier en réponse à l’appel à candidature pour des expérimentations de #monnaie #digitale de banque centrale, découvrez la liste des 8⃣ candidatures retenues 👉 https://t.co/VTMfBI3JUI #MDBC #Blockchain pic.twitter.com/IyB8OfZsAJ

— Banque de France (@banquedefrance) July 20, 2020

The central bank decided to work with Seba Bank, Accenture, and HSBC as well as with ProsperUS and Euroclear. These are not the only companies that are going to work with the bank. Iznes- a blockchain-powered record-keeping platform for funds will join the bank, LiquidSharem also a blockchain-based post-trade settlement for SMEs and the French Financial institution Societe Generale’s Forge which is a tech platform designed to promote blockchain-based activity.

With the latest announcement, Banque De France laid out the specific criteria for the CBDC proposals saying that they aim to “explore some new methods of exchanging financial instruments” but excluding crypto-assets such as Bitcoin. The experiments will also test CBDC regulations to improve the execution of the cross-border payments and to revisit methods of making central bank money available.

With the CBDC experiments still undisclosed, in the original call for applicants, the bank specified that they will have to lean on utility and innovation. It is also advised that it wasn’t restricting solutions to blockchain alone which could explain the varied selection. While the bank noted that these proposals are experimental, it still remarks that the findings will make a direct contribution to similar CBDC investigation in the European Union by forming the basis for a digitized Euro.

France seems to be leading the CBDC race in Europe but several other countries are also trying to pioneer it. In Italy, the Italian Banking Association built new guidelines for central bank digital currencies while the Dutch Central Bank offered to be testing the ground for the digital Euro.