The Bank of Spain plans to start a wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) project, and on Monday, it asked financial institutions and tech providers to submit proposals for the initiative by Jan. 31.
The program seeks to simulate the use of a CBDC in wholesale transactions, the bank said in an official statement. Wholesale transactions are those that involve the transfer of funds between banks and financial institutions.
The bank added that the program for a wholesale CBDC isn't related to research the European Union is doing on a retail digital euro. Separately, in September, France’s central bank announced two projects to assess a possible wholesale CBDC.