Swiss Central Bank tested CBDC with commercial lenders

The successful trial was an important part of the second phase of Project Helvetia

14.01.2022 - 07:05

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What’s new? The Swiss National Bank (SNB) has successfully tested the integration of the wholesale settlements in the central bank's digital currency with the commercial banks. According to a statement from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the successful trial was an important part of the second phase of Project Helvetia, which aims to integrate the tokenized financial assets with the main markets.

The BIS press release

How did the testing go? BIS joined five commercial banks, Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, Citi, UBS, and Hypothekarbank Lenzburg, as well as the Swiss exchange platform SIX, to conduct the trial. In December 2020, the SNB announced plans to expand its digital currency research to include commercial lenders.

The trial testing, which took place in the 4th quarter of 2021, included the issuance, redemption, and use of the CBDC for the settlement of securities both inside and outside Switzerland.

What are the prospects? Despite the success of the trial phase, the SNB claims that Project Helvetia is only an experimental study and that the work done is not indicative of the central bank's plans to float a wholesale CBDC.

“A wholesale central bank digital currency can be integrated into existing core banking systems and the commercial and central banks’ processes,” the BIS report says.

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