After a first phase of experimentation already underway, on June 21, the ECB’s Governing Council gave its approval for an additional group of participants to test Distributed Logging Technology (DLT) for the settlement of trades in central bank money, as part of the experimentation program it is maintaining through 2024.

The proposal made by BME will allow 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 has been supported by 10 large custodians, including CaixaBank, Cecabank, CACEIS Bank Spain, Kutxabank Investment Norbolsa, Banco Sabadell, Renta 4 Banco, BNP Paribas, Société Générale, Unicaja and Banco Cooperativo Español. Iberpay, given its position and sectorial experience as a European payment system, and Deloitte will also collaborate in the initiative as technical suppliers. Both will contribute their experience, both in the financial sector and in DLT network projects. These two entities facilitate the activities of the custodians in the experimentation to increase the learning capacity that this initiative offers.

Jesús Benito, Iberclear’s CEO, explains that "participation in this experimentation program is a new demonstration of BME’s innovative spirit, which is constantly seeking improvements through technologies such as blockchain, in order to continue to play a leading role in the digitization and modernization of the financial market. Additionally, it gives us the exceptional opportunity to experiment together with large Spanish custodians in the issuance and use of digital tokens in the Eurosystem. It is a unique opportunity to help our clients understand what these new technologies can bring to financial environments."

The Eurosystem’s experimentation program is scheduled to end in November 2024, with subsequent publication of the findings.