A cross-industry consortium is being launched in the UK to run a retail CBDC pilot, which will feature a live Digital Sterling (dSterling) stablecoin asset.
The Digital Financial Market Infrastructure (DFMI) consortium currently counts IBM, Finastra, FinClusive, Ibanera, paywith.glass, Mattereum, Trust Payments and Accomplish Financial as members. The initiative is being co-ordinated by Dutch financial infrastructure group paywith.glass, with Boston Consulting Group as its consulting partner, and supported by The Payments Association in the UK.
The upcoming pilot, operating under the bannner 'Project New Era', will test high potential use-cases and provide empirical inputs to policymakers and regulators on future design considerations for CBDC development and stablecoin regulation.
The consortium intends to use the blueprint set out by Project New Era to launch private-sector pilots in multiple jurisdictions across the world.
Kunal Jhanji, managing director and partner at Boston Consulting Group, says: "The world is undergoing a financial revolution from which there is no turning back. With the advent of DLT and blockchain technology, digital assets are ushering in a new era for money, with potentially transformative benefits for consumers, businesses, financial institutions and states. The industry needs to now come together to help the lawmakers and central banks shape the design and regulatory aspects of the biggest change we will see in the payments ecosystem in our lifetimes."