The French central bank has recently completed its wholesale CBDC experiments and has shared encouraging results of use cases and applications.
Banque De France, the French central bank, has shared a range of use cases through their wholesale CBDC experiments. Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and their wholesale payments use case was explored in detail by the bank. The bank’s own wholesale CBDC could have applications like cross-border payments, it said.
The bank’s wholesale CBDC (wCBDC) experimentation program was launched in March 2020. It included twelve experiments spanning its duration. The bank explored three models for issuing such CBDCs on digital ledger technology. It included the distribution model, the integration model, and the interoperability model.
The bank has released several takeaways from its experiments. It was supportive wCBDCs complementing retail CBDCs. Public-private partnerships and international cooperation were necessary for a wCBDC framework, it mentioned. Further, the central bank stressed interoperability and climate concerns.
The official release quoted the bank saying, “Through its experiments, the Banque de France shows that a tokenized form of central bank money could improve cross-border payments and settlement finality and security for a vast range of financial assets, from government bonds to fund shares, and a larger scope of stakeholders in wholesale transactions.”
Emmanuelle Assouan, Senior official of Banque De France, said the twelve experiments were carried out in collaboration with their partners. It also included central banks and commercial banks. The French central bank’s work would be in addition to that performed by international organizations like the IMF and BIS.