FIS has launched its new central infrastructure payment solution, RealNet Central, to help central banks transform their markets to digital-first, real-time payment economies.

As this shift occurs, RealNet Central will accelerate real-time payments adoption by connecting a country’s businesses, consumers, financial institutions and government entities to real-time networks, both domestically and internationally. FIS will also help central banks launch Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC). Through FIS’s CBDC Virtual Lab – created in collaboration with M10 Networks (M10) and its high-performance digital money platform – FIS will support countries’ efforts to integrate CBDCs into their economy.

The CBDC Virtual Lab allows central banks, commercial banks and other financial participants to experiment with – and pilot – core concepts of issuance, transfer, redemption, offline payments, programmable payments, retail, wholesale and cross-border payments. FIS’ CBDC Virtual Lab is enterprise-grade technology that supports over one million transactions per second at less than a second latency.

“The global economy has rapidly shifted toward digital-first mindsets and methods. While the idea of making payments in real-time may sound simple, the reality of delivering on that promise is enormously sophisticated, especially when doing so across borders,” said Aman Cheema, Head of Global Real-Time Payments and CBDCs at FIS. “Our latest offering sets out to change that, bringing consumers, businesses, financial institutions and governments closer together in the payments ecosystem. The launch of this solution is the latest proof point of FIS’ commitment to invest in innovative technologies and solutions that advance how the world pays.”

FIS has been shortlisted as a finalist on the G20 TechSprint 2022 CBDC challenge to build a prototype using the FIS Virtual Lab to demonstrate secure, resilient and effective CBDC issuance, redemption and transfer, whilst maintaining financial stability and integration with the existing payments landscape.

In regard with the launch BW Businessworld had spoken to Julia Demidova, Senior Director, Real-Time Payments and CBDC Strategy:

What is the process/infrastructure behind the CBDC Virtual Lab?

Our CBDC and Digital Currencies Connected Ecosystem and Virtual Lab powered with the high-performance digital money platform from M10 Networks allows nations to launch CBDCs. The digital money platform can tokenise central bank money and commercial bank deposits in the form of CBDC and digital regulated money. Jointly with M10 we are working and building additional functionality, use cases, working on interoperability with existing payment systems.

At the core of the Connected Ecosystem is M10’s enterprise-grade DLT (distributed ledger technology) with its shared, hierarchical ledger that supports over one million transactions per second at less than a second latency.

FIS CBDC and Digital Currencies Connected Ecosystem has been designed to support all types of use cases and innovation FIS CBDC and Digital Currencies Connected Ecosystem and Virtual Lab allows central banks, banks and other participants to experiment with CBDC and digital regulated money. Central Banks and other institutions can use the connected ecosystem to explore the use cases and design options, simulating the future ecosystem to assess the feasibility and the benefits for nations.

In what way will the Virtual Labs benefit the customers, either directly or indirectly?

Principally, it will be used to experiment with CBDC and digital regulated money and conduct POCs and pilots. It can also be used to accelerate implementation of a live CBDC and test rollout strategies. Public and private sector institutions could collaborate and advance their knowledge and skills through practical experimentation. FIS CBDC and Digital Currencies Virtual Lab can help institutions to ideate and define their future role(s). Through FIS CBDC and Digital Currency Connected Ecosystem, you will be able to engage with payments and digital currencies experts to be future ready and become the pioneers in the digital money.

Develop a comprehensive vision and rollout strategy for CBDC, which needs to include feasibility assessments, legal frameworks, business, and operational /governance models. Work on adoption and rollout strategies including educational campaigns for consumers and implementation roadmaps for ecosystem participants.

Define user benefits and policy objectives and use this as a base for design, consultation and future adoption.

Simply elaborate on the security framework of the Virtual Lab. How are you addressing any potential security risks associated with the Virtual Lab?

We consider our digital money platform as critical national infrastructure. We have designed the architecture to be resilient and cyber secure and sustain network outages, detect and prevent threats or cyberattacks.

In the event of outages with card networks or account-to-account payments systems, CBDC can be the additional rail that provides back-up this will become important as cash continues to decline (as cash used to be a back mechanism).

Digital Money platform is designed for high throughput as well as cyber security and cyber resilience in mind ( Designed for scale and security can be deployed on premise at data centers or in secure private cloud environment). Digital money platform is private, permissioned & centrally managed proprietary blockchain, purpose built for digital currencies and payments.

We also have a user friendly wallet that supports a range of devices inc. wearables cards, mobile apps, cards etc.

FIS To Launch CBDCs Virtual Lab Across Nations Including India