Tokyo-based credit card company, Japan Credit Bureau (JCB Co., Ltd), announced its plans to conduct tests on the CBDC infrastructure.
The project, titled JCBDC, will be developed as a joint collaboration between JCB, IDEMIA, and Softspace. The aim of this venture is to assess whether CBDCs can be used for settling payments via JCB’s credit card systems.
JCBDC 's development will comprise three phases. First, JCB will create a touch-based payment solution. This involves making changes to its existing credit card infrastructure.
The second step involves releasing a card-shaped CBDC interface that operates on JCB’s payment solution. Next, the firms will build a CBDC handling environment that will allow users and stores to check their CBDC balances.
The JCB claimed it will wrap up the development process by late 2022, with plans to carry out the demonstration until the end of March 2023.
The demonstration phase will only support touch payments. In the future, the JCB plans to add support for mobile payment solutions.
Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan earlier stated it will take a three-step approach toward implementing CBDCs with the second phase expected to start later this year.
