In January, the Bank of Spain announced two projects for its wholesale central bank digital currency (wholesale CBDC) trials. These initiatives are separate from the Eurosystem and ECB’s wholesale DLT settlement pilots. Recently, the Spanish central bank confirmed a third trial involving payment processor Minsait, a subsidiary of consulting firm Indra. This trial will run for five months alongside the other two experiments.
Spain’s wholesale CBDC trial plans were revealed before the ECB launched its initiative to explore wholesale DLT settlement. While the ECB pilot involves real money movements for some use cases, Spain’s trials are simulations. Notably, all three exploratory projects are not funded by the central bank.
Adhara is developing a wholesale CBDC solution encompassing multiple CBDCs, interbank payments and tokenized deposits. Meanwhile, a consortium led by Cecabank and including Abanca is conducting wholesale CBDC trials for the settlement of tokenized securities.
Minsait wholesale CBDC trial for bond settlement
Minsait’s trial, similar to Cecabank’s, will explore using a wholesale CBDC to settle the issuance and secondary market transactions of a natively digital bond. The bond and the CBDC will exist on the same blockchain infrastructure, enabling delivery versus payment. A unique aspect of this trial is the involvement of a simulated central securities depository (CSD), with transactions involving CSD participants. Additionally, the experiments will cover all lifecycle events, such as coupon payments and bond redemption.
Cecabank is also testing bond settlement
Both the Minsait and Cecabank trials involve wallets and custody. In Cecabank’s case, the bond will be issued on a blockchain platform managed by Cecabank rather than a CSD, with the wholesale CBDC on the same platform. The trial includes cross border functionality involving a second wholesale CBDC. Additionally, Cecabank will experiment with supporting investors who do not have Cecabank accounts. Functionally, the bond can be used for repo transactions and as collateral.
Meanwhile, the ECB’s wholesale DLT settlement formally started trials last week. They run until November, with a second wave of trials starting in July and ending on the same date.
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