The central banks are intensifying their efforts for digital central bank money and are making progress.

In the first row is the French national bank Banque de France (BdF), which is increasingly experimenting with electronic means and channels of payment.

Markus Frühauf

Editor in business.

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Niklas Záboji

Business correspondent in Paris

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According to a report in the British daily Financial Times, bond transactions were carried out in such a currency as part of a ten-month pilot project.

The BdF received support from the securities processor Euroclear, using a system developed by the American technology group IBM.

Around 500 financial institutions are said to have participated in the ten-month experiment, including companies such as the major French banks BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole and Société Générale, but also the British bank HSBC and the finance agency responsible for issuing French government bonds.

They traded government bonds and security tokens, according to the report, and handled purchases and sales using a digital currency provided by the central bank.

For example, new bonds were placed or repurchase agreements were made.

A spokesman for the BdF confirmed that the experiment had been carried out.

Another two to three years are necessary

France's central bank has been working with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) on the development of central bank digital money for some time.

The Basel-based BIS manages foreign exchange reserves for the central banks and serves as a monetary policy think tank.

The BIS innovation center is headed by Benoît Cœuré, a member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank (ECB) until the end of 2019.

The Frenchman recently urged the central banks to rush the development of digital central bank money in view of the private competition from Bitcoin or Facebook.

The ECB is also working on the digital euro.

In July, a two-year development project was decided, for the not yet fixed introduction another two to three years would be necessary.

Under the auspices of the BIS, the Banque de France and the Swiss National Bank have already carried out several tests for digital central bank money.

Like the most recent one in France, these mostly related to the banks' large transfer systems in the securities trade.

It is still unclear how digital central bank money should be distributed to private individuals and what advantages they should have with it.