The Banque de France is continuing its experiments at a sustained pace on the precursor of the future digital euro. She performed a test focused on the blockchain's ability to process secondary market transactions in large volumes.

The Banque de France conducted a large-scale experiment simulating several operations on OATs, French government bonds. A week after testing the possible use of a central bank digital currency (MNBC) for settlement, it did it again at the end of last week. But this time, the operation involved sovereign bonds. And not just any: the Obligations assimilables du Trésor (OAT), the French State debt.

The objective pursued by the central bank is always the same: to study the role that a “wholesale” MNBC (used between banks) could play, the consequences in terms of financial stability, and the possible interactions between new blockchain-type solutions and traditional infrastructure. The project was led by post-trade giant Euroclear. For this experiment, Agence France Trésor simulated an auction with several of its partner banks, namely: BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole CIB, HSBC Continental Europe and Société Générale.