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Writer's pictureT Skevington and M Bacina

Banque de France finishes first CBDC test

Updated: May 2

The Bank of France has announced the successful completion of a central bank digital currency test. While details are scarce, it seems that not unlike experiments carried out by our very own Reserve Bank of Australia.


The Bank of France's test focused on wholesale use, with a private, permissioned blockchain.


The announcement suggests that the test was completed on 14 May 2020, and used an internally developed blockchain to issue and use a CBDC token to pay for a digital financial security issued by Société Générale.


The Bank also confirms that more tests will be undertaken "in the next few weeks", in collaboration with unnamed participants.


This latest announcement follows the bank's earlier call for applications to experiment with the use of a digital euro, which in no uncertain terms stated that:

These experiments will act as a contribution by the Banque de France to a broader discussion within the Eurosystem, which will make any decision on whether to set up a CBDC. The tests are not intended to be continued on a long-term basis or applied on a wide scale by the Banque de France itself.

As CBDC experiments, and ultimately deployments, continue, we may well see the Bank of France take to the ramparts to call for a central bank digital currency or globally relevant stablecoin in future.

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