French Central Bank Accelerates Work On CBDC

François Villeroy de Galhau, Governor of the Bank of France, spoke yesterday about the expansion of the central bank's work on wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC). He wants the central bank to be ready to support the EU's pilot DLT regime for tokenized securities, which will come into effect on March 23, 2023.

The Bank of France is planning four or five more experiments this year and in 2023, involving more private firms and other foreign central banks. He previously worked with the Swiss National Bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Central Bank of Tunisia on selected cross-border payment projects.

The bank has created its own DLT technology, as well as an automated market maker platform, which can serve as the basis for a multi-CBDC platform, on which various central banks will unite to provide fast, automated and transparent settlement in different currencies.

Image: Central Banking