Brazil's Central Bank Selects 14 Participants for CBDC Pilot

The Central Bank of Brazil selected 14 selected institutions to participate in the pilot of the digital real, the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC).

Published Wednesday, the list includes major local private banks such as Bradesco, Nubank, and Itaú Unibanco, as well as the largest public Brazilian bank, Banco do Brasil, and the local stock exchange B3. Multinational companies such as Visa and Microsoft were also chosen to participate.

The central bank will begin incorporating participants into the Real Digital Pilot platform in mid-June 2023.

In total, the bank received 36 interest proposals from over 100 institutions from a number of different financial sectors, including payment institutions, cooperatives, public banks, crypto companies, financial market infrastructure operators, and payment settlement institutes.