• BME, which brought together part of the Spanish financial community, contributed its solution for the issuance and settlement of bonds with blockchain technology to the proposal
• The initiative sought to study the capacity of digital tokens to increase the efficiency, agility and security of financial market infrastructures, settling in Central Bank money issued under DLT technology
• Iberpay and Deloitte are collaborating with BME in the program

BME has successfully completed the initiative it is leading in relation to the Eurosystem’s experimentation program for the settlement of payment transactions using digital tokens issued by the European Central Bank (ECB). BME’s proposal was admitted last June 21 within the set of additional initiatives that the ECB’s Governing Council added in a second wave, for the settlement of transactions in central bank money, as part of the experimentation program that it maintains during 2024.

The proposal made by BME made it possible to evaluate the integration of digital tokens (wholesale central bank digital currencies or wCDBC) during the different phases of the life cycle of a digital bond. This initiative was supported by 10 large custodians, including CaixaBank, Cecabank, CACEIS Bank Spain, Kutxabank Investment, Banco Sabadell, Renta 4 Banco, BNP Paribas, Société Générale, Unicaja and Banco Cooperativo Español.

It also collaborated in the Iberpay initiative, given its position and sectorial experience as a European payment system, contributing its experience, both in the financial sector and in DLT network projects, facilitating the activities of the custodians in the experimentation, in order to increase the knowledge and experience that this initiative offers and its future opportunities. Deloitte, with its experience in Digital Assets and post-trading, will collaborate with BME and Iberpay to analyze the implications, advantages and challenges of using a wCBDC for the Spanish market.

Jesús Benito, CEO of Iberclear, explains that “participation in this experimentation program has given us the exceptional opportunity to experiment together with large Spanish custodians in the issuance and use of digital tokens in the Eurosystem, consolidating as a unique opportunity to help our clients understand what these new technologies can bring to financial environments. At BME we are always working on the constant search for improvements with technologies such as blockchain, in order to continue to play a leading role in the digitization and modernization of the financial market”.

Source: BME