In the last year, the amount of chatter surrounding the potential launch of a central bank digital currency, or CBDC has increased dramatically, as the number of prominent banks and financial institutions testing the potential applications of the technology, and ironing out kinks has climbed.
Société Générale (SocGen) is one of the banks at the forefront of the push towards the development of a viable central bank digital currency that can stand as a true successor to fiat currency.
Back in May, Société Générale joined forces with Banque de France to issue €40 million worth of covered bonds (“obligations de financement de l’habitat”), which were then settled with digital Euros issued by Banque de France — this was the first time digitized securities were settled with a central bank digital currency. SocGen also made headlines in 2019, when it issued a €100 million bond as a security token on the Ethereum blockchain using its Société Générale Forge platform.
To help promote open innovation and transform the banking industry, Société Générale launched Startup Flow, an initiative that sees the French bank bring in promising startups that can help it innovate in the financial sector. To date, Société Générale has welcomed more than 30 startups into the initiative, the most recent of which is Cypherium — a firm that looks to address to shortcomings of current public blockchains with its enterprise-grade blockchain solution.
According to the recent announcement, Cypherium has just been added as a preferred startup to Société Générale’s Startup Flow, where the two firms will work hand-in-hand to address some of the major challenges the banking industry faces today. Cypherium is already establishing itself as one of the major players in the central bank digital currency space after recently securing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) the Chinese district of Suzhou to build applications around China’s digital currencies project, known as Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP).
With Cypherium, banks and financial institutions will be able to easily scale their CBDC projects without sacrificing the privacy and security benefits that come with blockchain technology. They’ll also be able to take advantage of Cypherium’s Digital Currency Interoperability Framework (DCIF), a framework that allows CBDC’s to interact with a wide range of different industries, including those in the private sector and those built around legacy financial and national economic systems.
“We’re honoured to be listed on Société Générale’s Startup-Flow and to be innovating alongside equally disruptive startups specialising in areas such as open banking, payment/e-commerce, credit/real estate, Insurtech, cybersecurity/Regtech, capital markets, blockchain/crypto assets, wealth management and more,” said Cypherium CEO Sky Guo.