Brazil: Central Bank Selects Visa, Nubank for New CBDC Testing
The list of new participants in the second exploration phase of the CBDC Drex has been published by the Central Bank of Brazil (CB). The companies that are part of the 11 consortia that participated in the first phase of Drex submitted more than 40 proposals for the second phase, which is aimed at the expansion of digital payment options, according to the president of the Central Bank of Brazil, Roberto Campos.
The list of projects selected for the second testing phase of its digital currency (CBDC), called Drex, has been published by the Central Bank of Brazil (BC). Out of a total of 42 tests of different use cases, 13 topics will be developed in the second phase of testing.
The CB reported receiving more than 40 use cases for the second phase of the currency’s development until a few days ago. More than 40 proposals for the second phase were sent by the companies integrating the 11 consortia that participated in the first phase of Drex.
Brazil Moves Forward with a New Phase of its Drex CBDC
There are 16 consortia or companies directly involved in the testing and ongoing development of the resources or digital infrastructure to operate the platform in Brazil’s pilot CBDC. In the third quarter, the CBDC will also launch further calls for proposals:
“The CB will open the call for new application proposals from entities interested in participating in the Drex pilot. Those selected will be required to test the implementation of smart contracts by the end of the first half of 2025.”
The topics selected for the second phase of Drex will be reviewed by the BC and the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM). A few weeks ago, economist Fábio Lacerda, partner of PMG Consultoria, stated that it is important to understand Drex not as an isolated initiative, but as an evolution of the Brazilian economy. Among the selected topics and consortia, the following stand out
- Accounts Receivable Assignment: ABC and Inter
- Secured loans in CDB: BB, Bradesco and Itaú
- Secured loans in government securities: ABBC, ABC and MB
- Trade finance: Inter, Bradesco and Itaú
- Foreign Exchange Market Optimization: XP-Visa and NuBank
- Liquidity fund for trading in government securities: ABC, Inter and MB
- Transactions with Bank Credit Notes: ABBC
- Transactions with Agribusiness Assets (CVM): TecBan, MB and XP-Visa
- Transactions with Assets in Public Networks: MB
- Automotive transactions: B3, BV and Santander
- Credit and decarbonization transactions – CBIO: Santander
- Bond transactions (CVM): B3, BTG and Santander
- Real estate transactions: BB, Caixa and SFCoop
Meanwhile, the participants working on the first phase of Drex are Banco Seguro, Microsoft, BBChain, Google, Banco do Brasil, Bradesco and Núclea. Other participating consortiums include Banco BTG, Banco Inter (also participating in the second phase), Caixa, Unibanco, NuBank, Mastercard, Clear Sale, Visa, among others.
The second phase of Drex would seek to expand digital payment options, as pointed out by the President of the Central Bank of Brazil, Roberto Campos, who argued that after designing the Brazilian CBDC, the next step should be to create an official banking “super app”. He promised to complete the project by 2025.
“At some point, we are going to have a super app where you will be able to connect with data intelligence and artificial intelligence. We imagine that in the very near future people won’t have multiple banking apps. There will be some kind of aggregator with the advantage of having aggregated data. But we have to do the next step, which is tokenization. And that’s where Drex comes into play.”
By Leonardo Perez