The Bank of France has made public some of the results of its experiments with central bank digital currency.
A report published Monday focused on its wholesale CBDC efforts, the French central bank said that the trials focused on the trade and settlement of financial assets that are represented on a distributed ledger. The tests began in 2020, with initial details becoming public at the start of this year.
“These experiments with a wholesale CBDC were carried out in record time, in less than a year, and show how interested market participants are in the subject, as well as their expectations regarding public authorities,” Nathalie Aufauvre, Director General of Financial Stability and Operations, said in a statement. “With the emergence of financial assets in tokenised form, we have shown that a CBDC, combined with the potential of new technologies, can ensure the safe settlement of transactions in these assets and thereby contribute to the secure development of these innovations.”
As might be expected, the Bank of France isn’t pushing forward with a concrete CBDC launch plan. Rather, it wants to pursue additional experiments using the technology.
“The experiments raised some important questions that need to be examined further,” the central bank said.
The developments come as an array of central banks, including the U.S. Federal Reserve, have pursued R&D projects focused on digital currency.
