The Central Bank of France has enlisted eight major financial sector firms to collaborate on its bid to pilot test the digital Euro. The partnership includes the digital currency testing as well as the interbank settlements of the central bank.
The financial authority named firms includes Accenture, Euroclear, HSBC, LiquidShare, ProsperUS, SEBABank, and Societte Generale. Previous reports also say that France’s central bank has already conducted tests with one of the firms, Societte Generale. The tests were carried out in a real-world form of transaction, and besides that, with the aforementioned eight companies they intend to even extend the tests further.
Digital Euro trials to focus on key areas
In a statement released on July 20, France’s central bank revealed the planned tests would focus more on the three key areas. Core areas include devising new ways of trading financial instruments for central bank funds; evaluating digital currency regulation to boost the execution of international payments by making favorable conditions for these transactions, and updating the forms in which CBDCs are made available to the public.
Monetary authorities across the world working on CBDC
Following the devastating effects of COVID-19, more and more people have moved to embrace digital currencies. This has forced central banks around the world to step up their efforts to create a digital currency as people are now actively avoiding contact fiat currency. As a result, this action has prompted Central Banks to increase their efforts on CBDC in a bid to curb the virus’ spread.
More central banks around the world are expected to launch their digital currencies, with nations like China poised to become the first nation to issue its very own digital currency. For the last 5-6 years, the Chinese central bank has been working on their digital yuan. A recent study by the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) shows that central banks are more likely to issue CBDCs in developing nations than in developed nations.