A year after its initial call for partners to partake in testing a central bank digital currency (CBDC), the Bank of Spain has announced its selected collaborators. On January 3, the central bank declared it had formed partnerships with Cecabank, Abanca, and Adhara Blockchain to advance this initiative.
The upcoming pilot program, which will unfold over six months, aims to test the functionality of a wholesale CBDC. This phase will involve the use of a singular, tokenized CBDC to simulate interbank payment processes and settlements. The experiment will also include an exploration of exchanges involving multiple wholesale CBDCs issued by different central banks.
A specific component of this trial, conducted in collaboration with the Cecabank-Abanca consortium, will focus on the use of a wholesale CBDC for settling tokenized bonds in a simulated environment. The Bank of Spain selected these three entities from a pool of 24 applicants. Notably, while Cecabank and Abanca are Spanish banking institutions, Adhara Blockchain is headquartered in the United Kingdom.
This Spanish CBDC initiative is particularly notable for its independence from the broader digital euro project. The digital euro, if realized, would span the entire eurozone. In a related development, Spain’s Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation has revealed plans to implement EU cryptoasset market regulations six months ahead of the prescribed deadline.
Despite these advancements, there seems to be a lack of enthusiasm among Spanish citizens for a digital euro. A survey conducted in October indicated that 65% of participants were unlikely to adopt a pan-European CBDC as an addition to their existing payment methods.
