French Central Bank Trials Digital Currency for Interbank Settlement

The central bank digital currency project will test cross-border settlement between French and Swiss fiat currencies. The Bank of France and the Swiss National Bank are teaming up with the Bank for International Settlements’ Innovation Hub to test a wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) system dubbed “Project Jura.”According to a release by the Bank of France on Thursday, the Project Jura pilot study will also draw participation from a private consortium led by global service company Accenture. Other establishments in the private consortium include Credit Suisse, UBS, SIX Digital....

Bank of England to include blockchain interface supporting Bitcoin and other digital currencies in its revamped interbank payment system. The Bank of England is known for its progressive outlook. On multiple occasions, representatives of the English Central Bank have hinted the use of digital currency and blockchain technology in the near future. They may have been referring to the recently announced plan to revamp the country’s interbank payment system all this while. In an announcement, the Bank of England made its plans to upgrade its interbank fund transfer network by the end of this....

The Central Bank of Bahrain expects that its digital currency collaboration with JPMorgan and Bank ABC could extend to a CBDC. The government of Bahrain, the third-richest Arab country, is working with American investment bank JPMorgan Chase on a digital currency settlement pilot.The Central Bank of Bahrain officially announced Tuesday that the bank is now collaborating with JPMorgan and the Arab Banking Corporation BSC, or Bank ABC, in a pilot scheme to introduce an instant cross-border payment solution based on digital currency technology.Aiming to cut settlement processing time, the new....

The central bank of Japan will not be applying blockchain to its payments and settlement systems any time soon, the institution has said. Following a statement last year by the Bank of Japan’s deputy governor Haruhiko Kuroda, that the the bank was "test driving" distributed ledger technology, the bank's head of payments has now clarified the research. Masafumi Miya, who also oversees the bank’s fintech center, told CoinDesk: "These trials by the bank's staff simply aim to understand the mechanics of DLT, rather than applying it to the bank's own liabilities or its payment....

The French presidency of the European Union winds down with the completion of wCBDC experiments, the design of a proprietary blockchain and an automated market maker platform. The first phase of experiments with a wholesale digital euro has been completed, and Phase 2 experiments will begin this year, Banque de France governor François Villeroy de Galhau said Tuesday. Four or five new experiments are expected to be launched. Speaking at the Paris Europlace International Finance Forum, the French central banker summed up the European Union’s achievements in crypto-asset regulation under the....