Ethereum software firm ConsenSys has partnered with French banking giant Société Générale’s digital asset division for its ongoing digital euro tests.
Brooklyn-based ConsenSys announced on Oct. 28 that it has been selected to provide technology and services for Société Générale – Forge’s digital euro pilot. It will focus on central bank digital currency (CBDC) issuance and management, delivery versus payment, and cross-ledger interoperability.
ConsenSys is committed to advances in the CBDC space and has assisted six central banks around the world on CBDC projects,” said Ken Timsit, global head of enterprise solutions in a ConsenSys blog post.
Société Générale – Forge has been heavily involved with national and euro-area digital currency tests, notably a May test of a digital euro. That project, a partnership with the Banque de France, saw covered bonds worth $44 million issued as security tokens that were directly registered on a public blockchain. The issue was fully subscribed by the bank, which simultaneously paid the issuer in digital euros issued by Banque de France.
“We are pleased to partner with ConsenSys, a company who is a key player in the development of distributed ledger technology globally and offers many of the infrastructure and development tools used by the blockchain community,” said Jean-Marc Stenger, CEO of Société Générale – Forge.
The bank’s security token division provides end-to-end services to issuers and investors using digital-native financial products registered on the blockchain. It also provides “institutional-grade frameworks and models for Security Token operations.”
The Banque de France has been particularly aggressive in working on a digital euro. As far back as last December, the Banque de France Governor François Villeroy de Galhau announced plans to launch a French digital currency as a forerunner to a digital euro.