Banque de France announces candidates for experiments with Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)

Following the examination of the applications received on May 15, 2020 in response to the call for applications for experiments in interbank settlements launched by the Banque de France, the following eight companies were selected (in alphabetical order):

• Accenture
• Euroclear
• HSBC
• Iznes
• LiquidShare
• ProsperUS
• SEBA Bank
• Société Générale

The experiments proposed by the successful candidates will allow (i) to explore new methods of exchanging financial instruments against central bank money, (ii) to test the regulation in central bank digital money in order to improve the conditions of execution of cross-border payments and (iii) revisit the methods of making central bank money available. In due course Banque de France will start to collaborate with each of the eight candidates to carry out the pilot projects over the coming months.

The lessons learned from these experiments will constitute a direct contribution to the more global reflection conducted by the Eurosystem on the benefits of a CBDC. These experiments also illustrate Banque de France's commitment to innovation, which was recently chosen to host, with the Deutsche Bundesbank, and the European Central Bank, a new joint innovation centre in Europe within the framework of the Innovation Hub of the Bank for International Settlements.