The Swiss National Bank (SNB), together with partners, successfully tested the integration of wholesale CBDC into settlements with commercial credit institutions, the regulator said in a press release.
Participants in the experiment included Citi, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Hypothekarbank Lenzburg and UBS.
“The SNB and five commercial banks integrated wholesale CBDC into their existing systems and back-office processes. The tests covered a wide range of operations in Swiss francs — interbank, cross-border, and within the framework of monetary policy,” the regulator said.
The trials formed the second phase of the Project Helvetia initiative, implemented by the SNB, SIX, and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). The project explores the deployment of tokenized financial assets and infrastructure based on distributed ledger technology (DLT).
“We demonstrated that innovations can be used to preserve the best elements of the existing financial system, including central-bank-denominated settlements, while also identifying new potential benefits. Once DLT goes mainstream, this will be more relevant than ever,” said Benoît Coeuré, head of the BIS Innovation Hub.
The first phase of Project Helvetia was completed in December 2020, by the partners, confirming in tests the possibility of using the national digital currency for settlements for tokenized assets.
The Swiss National Bank stressed that the project is exploratory in nature and does not imply that the regulator plans to issue a wholesale CBDC. Earlier stated the bank’s chief economist, Carlos Lentz.
In 2021, the SNB, together with the Bank of France, participated in the Project Jura experiment under the BIS Innovation Hub’s patronage for CBDC use in cross-border payments.