French Depository Bank issues €100 million digital bond to pilot wCBDC settlement

The French Depository Bank (CDC) recently issued a €100 million ($108 million) digital bond, settled using the French central bank’s DL3S DLT platform and its pilot wholesale central bank digital currency wCBDC. The transaction was part of the European Central Bank’s wholesale DLT settlement pilot, which is set to end this month. The French central bank avoids using the term wholesale CBDC, instead referring to it as a tokenized representation of central bank money. For the CDC’s issuance, it needed to synchronize the issuance of digital native notes (DNNs) on Euroclear’s D-FMI platform with settlement on the central bank’s DL3S. Under French law, DNNs are issued in bearer form. In addition, the French pilot CBDC solution has been used for a number of other digital bond issuances. These include a €30 million sovereign bond issued by Slovenia and a small commercial paper issued by ABN Amro, as well as several other DL3S experiments involving simulations. (Ledger Insights)