Firms Target Central Banks with CBDC Infrastructure

Two firms, eCurrency Mint and CMA have announced a partnership to provide central banks with an integrated Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) and Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) solution.

The firms say the collaboration “operationalises” CBDC allowing support for commercial banks and other intermediaries to access currency in both physical and digital form. It also

provides central banks with a secure and efficient infrastructure to issue and redeem digital currency created by the central banks, they further claim, adding the solution supports the existing currency management processes in place for the issuance and distribution of notes and coins.

The RTGS system is the settlement and clearing mechanism used by intermediary banks to order currency and to support other joint operations in orchestration with CBDC infrastructure. An integrated CBDC-RTGS infrastructure will seamlessly allow for incorporating the current capability to facilitate currency in digital form, the firms say.

“With this partnership we shift to operationalising CBDC,” says Jonathan Dharmapalan, CEO of eCurrency. “The key is for current central bank processes and systems to work seamlessly with our CBDC platform. CMA’s RTGS plays a vital role for central banks as does eCurrency’s CBDC solution, therefore it is crucial that the two systems are tightly integrated. We are excited to bring the benefits of our partnership to central banks.”

CMA says it has implemented RTGS successfully at “dozens” of central banks worldwide. “CMA is excited to explore new opportunities that this partnership could bring, aligning our 30 years of experience in building and delivering payment systems for central banks with eCurrency’s unique and mature enterprise-grade CBDC solution,” says Grigory Shiyan, CMA, director.