Brazil’s Central Bank has published the final list of participants in the digital-real pilot project.
A total of 14 participants were chosen, but some of them represent a group of companies.
For example, the U.S. technology giant Microsoft is on a par with the Brazilian bank Inter and the São Paulo-based information technology company 7COMm.
Other participants include Visa, Spanish bank Santander and Brazilian banking institutions such as Itaú Unibanco, BTG Bank, Bradesco and others.
Earlier, the Central Bank of Brazil said it would allow different types of institutions to join the project: commercial and investment banks, cooperatives, payment institutions and fintech companies.
This will allow for full simulation of financial flows. Central Bank to launch CBDC pilot project in mid-June.
It became known in February that the central bank is going to conduct a series of tests of its own digital currency by the end of 2023.
The Central Bank was planning to launch its own digital currency back in 2022.
Later, however, the regulator said that the launch of the digital real will have to be postponed for several years, because more time is needed to study its possibilities.