<p>The Banque de France, France's central bank, revealed Monday that it had selected eight applicants as part of a wide-ranging effort to test digital currency solutions.</p> <p>In a July 20 statement, the central bank <a href="https://www.banque-france.fr/communique-de-presse/liste-des-candidatures-retenues-pour-les-experimentations-de-monnaie-digitale-de-banque-centrale" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said</a> that the experiments would cover a number of areas — though notably not the realm of crypto-asset transfer — and would commence "in the coming days." The list of candidates includes several major banks among other firms:</p> <ul> <li>Accenture</li> <li>Euroclear</li> <li>HSBC</li> <li>Iznes</li> <li>LiquidShare</li> <li>ProsperUS</li> <li>Seba Bank</li> <li>Societe Generale's Forge</li> </ul> <p>"The experiments proposed by the selected candidates will allow (i) to explore new methods of exchanging financial instruments (excluding crypto-assets) for central bank money, (ii) to test the regulation in digital central bank money in order to improve the conditions for carrying out cross-border payments and (iii) revisit the arrangements for making central bank money available," the Banque said in a translated statement.</p> <p>The Block previously reported on the French central bank's <a href="https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/66052/frances-central-bank-societe-generale-successfully-test-blockchain-based-digital-euro" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">testing of a digital euro</a>. The Banque du France conducted that experiment with Societe Generale, one of the new program's participants. Societe Generale has pursued a number of blockchain-focused projects, including the tokenization of assets, <a href="https://www.theblockcrypto.com/daily/66868/societe-generale-blockchain-unit-tokenization" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">as reported by The Block's Yogita Khatri</a>.</p> <p>In its July 20 statement, the Banque de France noted (as translated): "The lessons learned from these experiments will constitute a direct contribution to the more global reflection led by the Eurosystem on the interest of a central bank digital currency."</p>