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Euroclear has joined the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's (HKMA) Project Ensemble, aimed at using wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) to settle interbank tokenized exposits and assets. As an Architecture Community member, Euroclear will contribute by developing a set of industry standards to support interoperability in Hong Kong's tokenization ecosystem.

Euroclear has invested in Fnality, the blockchain payments consortium formerly known as the Utility Settlement Coin (USC) and owned by 16 major financial institutions. Euroclear operates Central Securities Depositories (CSDs) across Europe, including Belgium, Finland, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. In October, Fnality plans to launch its first payment currency with pounds sterling deposited at the Bank of England. That makes it a so-called wholesale synthetic CBDC where the purpose is for institutions to use it for settlement, especially for blockchain-based transactions.

Euroclear, one of the world's largest securities depositories, says it will push forward with building a pilot blockchain-based platform for the issuance and settlement of European commercial paper (ECP).

The World Bank issued the first digital securities on the new Euroclear R3 Corda-based Financial Market Infrastructure (D-FMI) distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform. The three-year Digitally Native Notes raised EUR 100 million to support the financing of World Bank's sustainable development activities.

On June 18th and 25th, the Banque de France successfully carried out a fifth experiment on central bank digital currency (CBDC) with a consortium of actors driven by LiquidShare as part of the experimental program launched in March 2020. The experiment involved the simulation on a private blockchain of the issuance and settlement of unlisted securities and of the settlement of listed securities. Settlements of securities were simulated by CBDC issued on the blockchain. The experiment required the development and deployment of smart contracts so that the Banque de France could issue and control the circulation of CBDC tokens while ensuring that each transfer takes place simultaneously with the delivery of the securities.

A consortium of institutions led by Euroclear have completed a test run of the use of wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) for settling French treasury bonds on a blockchain. The experiment, using technology from IBM and commissioned by the Banque de France included Agence France Trésor, BNP Paribas CIB, Crédit Agricole CIB, HSBC, Societe Generale. The trial is part of a wider Banque de France initiative commissioned in March 2020, to test the integration of a central bank digital currency for the exchange and settlement of tokenised financial assets between financial intermediaries.

The World Bank will issue the first CHF digital bond by an international issuer to settle in Swiss Franc wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) provided by the Swiss National Bank (SNB). The coupon and redemption payments on the seven-year CHF 200 million bond will be made using tokenized CHF on the SIX Digital Exchange (SDX). The SDX connects to conventional settlement systems such as Euroclear and Clearstream, via SIX SIS, allowing investors to hold the digital bond through their traditional custodians.

Digital Asset completed a pilot to tokenize U.K. Gilts, Eurobonds and gold on the distributed ledger technology (DLT) based Canton Network, which provided interoperability between separate DLT networks that have deployed Digital Asset's technology. The aim was to demonstrate how tokenized assets on a blockchain can enhance collateral mobility, improve liquidity, and increase transactional efficiency. The pilot involved Euroclear, the World Gold Council and 27 market participants. Five types of cross-application transactions were connected using eleven distributed applications, including six registry apps and five margin apps, with 500 transactions completed.

The Institute of International Finance (IIF) released the names of 41 firms selected to participate in the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Project Agorá, aimed at modernizing correspondent banking using a unified ledger, tokenized deposits and wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) from seven central banks. The seven central banks are the Banque de France, Banxico, New York Fed, Swiss National Bank, Bank of England, Bank of Japan, and Bank of Korea. Thirty five of the selected institutions are banks representing the seven jurisdictions. The others are Visa, Mastercard and SWIFT, Eurex Clearing, Euroclear and the SIX Digital Exchange. https://www.iif.com/About-Us/Press/View/ID/5880/Private-sector-partners-join-Project-Agor-

Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) have been high on policy makers' agenda for the past few years. Numerous central banks around the world have issued reports on the viability, use cases and even potential structures for a tokenised or account-based form of central bank money, based on distributed ledger technology or existing technology. The theory has largely been proved to be effective and now it is time to bring these CBDCs to life.