CBDC Round-Up

ECB Tenders for Elements of its Digital Euro Pilot

The ECB is looking to sign five agreements worth about €1.1 billion for a four year pilot of a Digital Euro starting early 2025.

The framework agreements are for the alias lookup component; the fraud and risk management component; the app and SDK components; the offline services component; and the secure exchange of payment information component.

Offline CBDC Trial Begins

JCB, a payments network provider based in Japan, is piloting a person-to-person offline trial for CBDC payments made either card-to-card or via a mobile phone or phone-to-phone. The trial also involves Soft Space, a Malaysian fintech who provides the payment platform, and IDEMIA, the identity technology provider. Even without internet connectivity, fund availability will be immediately guaranteed.