Visa unveils platform for Brazil’s CBDC

The payments giant Visa has developed a suite of solutions to integrate the central bank digital currency (CBDC) into Brazil’s financial ecosystem, according to the local outlet Livecoins.

After several months of research, the company unveiled a programmable platform designed for small and medium-sized enterprises.

As part of the initiative, Visa collaborated with Agrotoken, Microsoft and Sinqia.

The company said that the digital real platform would be particularly interesting to private farmers and agricultural businesses.

The development «expands access to global capital markets, facilitates interaction between currencies, improves operational processes and opens new opportunities for economic growth».

In addition, the payments company developed a new smart-contract-based technology for closed-bid auctions, which allows «a global pool of investors to participate in the financing process, achieving a competitive price».

The service is built on the Universal Payment Channel technology and uses a transaction-verification mechanism from Microsoft.

According to Visa representatives, the functionality will allow businesses to use the digital real across multiple markets and networks, and will also «reduce the inconveniences caused by a lack of access to traditional services».

The Central Bank of Brazil had planned to launch the CBDC in 2024. The regulator’s head, Roberto Campos Neto, said that the design of the digital real would spur banks to tokenise assets to boost efficiency.