Banque de France has announced that it successfully settled €2 million (US$2.43 million) worth of simulated monetary shares on a private blockchain network as part of its CBDC pilot. The central bank, which has previously expressed openness to the idea of CBDCs, said that the pilot began on Dec 17 with the support of private players in the financial market. French Central Bank Settles $2.4 Million Simulated Monetary Shares in CBDC Pilot

According to the announcement, Banque de France collaborated with a U.K blockchain startup dubbed SETL, which provided the blockchain infrastructure and CBDC stablecoin. Other notable partners include DXC, OFI AM, GROUPAMA AM, CITIGROUP, CACEIS, and IZNES.

With the conversation on CBDCs starting on a high note this year, the Central Bank of France is among the global monetary authorities moving relatively fast in research and development. The bank had requested CBDC use case proposals as early as March 2020; they are now set to continue with more pilot experiments within the course of this year. It is also quite noteworthy that France is among the countries that are willing to partake in a digital Euro pilot, should one be rolled out soon.

Meanwhile, other jurisdictions, including the U.S, are now taking a keen interest in the potential of a CBDC based monetary ecosystem. Last week, the Fed reserve Chair Jerome Powel said in an interview that developing CBDCs is of ‘high priority’ in the fight against ‘bad private-sector money.’ China is also forging ahead with its CBDC pilot and recently rolled out the pioneer digital yuan ATMs in the region of Shenzen. These developments concur with the BIS findings last year, where it noted increased activity in CBDCs.

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