Visa and Microsoft joined Brazil’s CBDC project

The Central Bank of Brazil published the final list of participants in the pilot project CBDC, which included Visa, the payments giant, and Microsoft.

The regulator selected from 36 applications submitted by various organizations and consortia. According to the central bank, more than 100 companies sought to participate in the project.

In total, 14 contenders were selected, including Brazilian banks Santander, Itau Unibanco, BTG Bank, Bradesco, the Spanish bank Inter and the IT company 7COMm.

At this stage of the development of the digital real, the central bank will test privacy and programmability features using the delivery-versus-payment (DvP) protocol.

Brazil’s regulator planned an official launch of the CBDC in 2024. The regulator’s head, Roberto Campos Neto, said that the technology design would serve as an incentive for banks to tokenise assets to improve efficiency.

In April, Visa developed a list of solutions for integrating the central bank’s digital currency into the country’s financial ecosystem. The company unveiled a programmable platform designed for small and medium-sized enterprises.