The Eurosystem recently concluded a series of tests exploring the usage of distributed ledger technology (DLT) for wholesale settlement in central bank money. A total of 200 transactions valued at €1.59 billion were processed over 40 trials, reports the European Central Bank (ECB). 64 participants took part – BNP Paribas was one of them. The bank gives a round-up of its experience.
The trial experimented with three payment solutions: DL3S, Banque de France’s full DLT interoperability solution; Deutsche Bundesbank’s Trigger solution; and Banca d’Italia’s TIPS Hash Link solution. BNP Paribas took part as both market DLT participant and market DLT operator, testing all three solutions with 10 use cases. Transactions were made with Neobonds, its private tokenisation platform on Canton blockchain; AssetFoundry, its Ethereum-based platform; as well as external DLT platforms.
Tried and tested
With Banque de France’s DL3S solution, BNP Paribas acted as DLT market operator on its Neobonds platform to arrange and place a €30 million issuance – the first Eurozone sovereign digital bond for Slovenia. Later in the year, the bank participated as the joint lead manager of the European Investment Bank’s €100 million three-year euro digital bond issuance, and as issuing and paying agent in Caisse des Dépôts’ first issuance of digitally native notes on Euroclear’s D-FMI tokenisation platform.
In testing Deutsche Bundesbank’s Trigger solution, BNP Paribas acted as market DLT operator for the cash settlement of its own bond on its Neobonds tokenisation platform. Banca d’Italia’’s TIPS Hash Link solution was tested with the issuance and settlement of a simulated bond.
