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France’s central bank executed a series of bond transactions using its own digital currency and blockchain technology as part of the 10-month experiment in the country’s debt market. A consortium of France’s biggest financial market participants, including BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole CIB, HSBC, and Societe Generale, along with the French public debt office and Banque de France executed the transactions using a system developed by IBM, according to a report published by securities depository Euroclear, which led the trial. “This project went well beyond previous blockchain initiatives because it successfully tested most central securities depository and central bank processes whilst eliminating current interim steps, such as reconciliation between market intermediaries,” said Soren Mortensen, global director of financial markets at IBM, in the report.
“We are rapidly moving towards fundamental change in the post-trade market infrastructure.”
Earlier this year, Banque de France published a request for proposals for central bank digital currency (CBDC) “experiment” applications to help it understand the risks and mechanisms of digital fiat. The pilot was commissioned by the central bank of France in March last year to explore how digital fiat would exchange and settle with deals recorded on a digital ledger. “We have together successfully been able to measure the inherent benefits of this technology, concluding that the central bank digital currencies can settle central bank money safely and securely,” said Isabelle Delorme, deputy chief executive of Euroclear France.