France to launch national cryptocurrency next year

The National Bank of France has announced plans to launch the country’s own digital currency (CBDC) by 2023, according to the bank’s governor, François Villereuil de Galau.

According to François Villeroy de Galau at the Paris Europlace 2022 International Financial Forum, the French central bank plans to «test a viable prototype» of wholesale CB DCs in 2022. If the test run is successful, digital assets will be put into circulation.

However, the head of the bank emphasized that currently, France is working on the introduction of CBDCs only for «wholesale use» — that is, only financial institutions that have reserve deposits with the central bank will be able to conduct transactions with digital currency. According to François Villereuil de Galau, retail-oriented CBDCs often cause «public unrest, raise many questions, and encourage doubt» — while wholesale assets are «less controversial and allow institutions to experiment.» By the way, the same opinion is shared by the Central Bank of Brazil, where digital currency will be used by banks as collateral for issuing their own stablecoins.

France is not the only country that has «paid attention» to CBDS. Back in early June, the Central Bank of Jamaica officially recognized the Jam-Dex digital currency as legal tender. Jamaica became the first country in the world to legalize CBDC at the legislative level. The International Monetary Fund has also concluded that some cryptocurrencies and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) can be a more efficient payment solution than credit and debit cards, especially in the context of energy consumption.