(Finance) – LEONIDAS, the project coordinated by ABI and ABI Lab and successfully tested within the Milan Hub of the Bank of Italy, is among those admitted by European Central Bank (ECB) at exploratory work on new technologies applied to wholesale payment infrastructures. The initiative was selected at Milan Hub, the innovation center of the Bank of Italy created to support the digital evolution of the financial market. With the support of the Milano Hub, Abi and Abi Lab, together with eight banks, have been selected with LEONIDAS for this new testing phase.
LEONIDAS (Effective Liquidation ONchaIn Dlt Asset on Spunta), the proposal of ABI and ABI Lab, was developed in collaboration with NTT Data, R3 and a group of banks, moves in the wake of the successful experience already achieved with Spunta Banca DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) and the work carried out in recent years in the associative field. The interoperability solution identified for testing within the Eurosystem’s work, in continuity with the work carried out within the Milan Hub, is developed by the Banque de France on DLT technology and relates to the settlement of liquid balances of mutual accounts through the use of a central bank digital currency. Participating in the work, with ABI and ABI Lab, are 8 banks – Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, Banco BPM, BFF Bank, BPER Banca, Crédit Agricole Italia, Intesa Sanpaolo, UniCredit – and the technical partners NTT Data and R3 .