The Central Bank of France (Banque de France) has announced that it will begin experiments related to the digital euro.
To this end, the bank has selected eight potential candidates to help integrate CBDC into interbank settlements. These are companies such as Accenture, HSBC, Societe Generale, Seba Bank, and LiquidShare.
In March, the bank said it would select no more than 10 applications from companies to experiment with CBDC, with the "innovative nature of companies" being the chief selection criterion.
The French central bank will now work with these companies "to explore new methods of exchanging financial instruments." Besides, pilot projects will help understand how CBDC can be used in cross-border payments.
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It looks like the Banque de France is going to investigate the wholesale rather than retail use of the digital euro. It also means that the CBDC must be tailored for "interbank rules" and not for consumer purposes.
France is at the forefront of European CBDC experiments. In May this year, Banque de France successfully tested the digital euro on the blockchain in a joint project with Societe Generale.
While it is not yet clear how the French CBDC experiments will translate across the EU, Banque de France and Deutsche Bundesbank were recently incorporated into the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) innovation center network.