The central bank of France continues actively exploring a central bank digital currency (CBDC), completing a significant trial of a blockchain-based CBDC in the country’s debt market. Over 500 institutions in France have participated in a 10-month experiment testing a CBDC issued by Banque de France for government bond deals, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday. The CBDC trial was led by Belgium-based financial services firm Euroclear and used a system developed by American technology giant IBM. The CBDC test also involved the French public debt office alongside the central bank and a consortium of major financial companies operating in …
The Central Bank of Iran (CBI), via its Informatics and Services Corporation (ISC) and in conjunction with Areatak — a Tehran-based blockchain solutions provider — is developing a national blockchain project for its banking and financial sector. Called the Borna platform, Iran hopes to use the project to revamp its banking ecosystem, creating a digital financial economy that will replace the current legacy system. There are also future plans to open up the platform to local private establishments, creating a unitary monetary and banking system for the country. Given the country’s current standoff with the United States and the renewal …
Brazilian banks will be implementing a new standardized blockchain identity solution powered by the Hyperledger Fabric-platform, Cointelegraph Brazil reported on June 2. The identity solution — co-developed by IBM and the country’s central bank, CIP — is reportedly to be integrated into the Brazilian Payment System (SPB) — a system used by all banks and financial institutions in the country. The new blockchain platform has reportedly been designed to authenticate and verify digital identities for users’ bank accounts by using an individual’s mobile phone and SIM card information in combination with other smartphone-derived personal data. Cointelegraph Brazil reports that the …
Riyadh Municipality, Saudi Arabia, has partnered with IBM to jointly develop a strategy to streamline government services and transactions on а blockchain, news outlet ITP.net reported July 11. The move was made in accordance with an authoritative decision of the Government of Saudi Arabia to work on improving the quality of municipal services for customers and integrate leading technologies into services as part of the Saudi Vision 2030 program. The Saudi Vision 2030 program is an agenda for economic development and the diversification of the Saudi economy away from oil, which comprises between 30-40 of the country’s GDP. First introduced …
Government-issued electronic currency seems to be an idea whose time has come. “More than half of the world’s central banks are now developing digital currencies or running concrete experiments on them,” reported the Bank for International Settlements, or BIS, in early May — something that would have been unthinkable only a few years ago. The BIS also found that nine out of ten central banks were exploring central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, in some form or other, according to its survey of 81 central banks conducted last autumn but just published. Many were taken aback by the progress. “It …