Sweden may become the first country in the European Union to try out a central bank-backed cryptocurrency, the so-called Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). It started testing in cooperation with commercial banks.
Although it is still a long way from the digital form of the Swedish kroner, the Swedish central bank Riksbank has been working on the project for several years. At the current stage, it is completing preparations for the launch of the e-krona trial operation and has invited private financial institutions to cooperate. The first is Handelsbanken, with which the Riksbank wants to fine-tune, in particular, the infrastructure on which the digital crown should operate.
“For Handelsbanken to participate in the project, it is an opportunity to participate in preparations for the introduction of the first digital currency issued by the central bank worldwide, and to take credit for making e-krona available to the public,” Handelsbanken said in a statement to the media.
The Riksbank announced in April that it intended to include commercial banks in the pilot project so that it could test with them how e-krona could be used for large business transactions, but also as currency in ordinary transfers of smaller volumes. The Riksbank, along with the Central Bank of China and the Bahamas, is one of the only ones in the world to have already started testing the digital currency.
