Switzerland’s wholesale CBCC pilot was launched in collaboration with central, commercial banks
The Swiss National Bank (SNB), six commercial banks and six Swiss exchanges are working together to offer wholesale central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), officially known as the Swiss franc wCBDC.
Dubbed Helvetia Phase III, the pilot project for the wholesale CBCC will test the effectiveness of the Swiss franc wCBDC for settling digital securities transactions. The pilot builds on the findings of the first two phases – Helvetia Phases I and II – at the BIS Innovation Hub, SNB and SIX.
The six banks involved in the pilot – Banque Cantonale Vaudois, Baler Kantonalbank, Commerzbank, Kreditarbank Lenzburg, UBS and Zurcher Kantonalbank – are also member banks of the existing SIX Digital Exchange (SDX).
The Swiss wCBDC pilot project is hosted on SDX and uses the Swiss Interbank Clearing Infrastructure. According to the announcement, the pilot will run from December 2023 to June 2024.
“The purpose of the pilot is to test primary and secondary market transactions in the wCBDC in a live product environment.”
Within this timeframe, participating banks will issue “digital Swiss franc bonds, which will be settled on a delivery and settlement basis against the wCBDC. All transactions in this test environment are secured by digital bonds and settled on SDX by wCBDC.
Related: Top Swiss Bank Launches Bitcoin and Ether Trading with SEBA
In parallel with internal CBDC efforts, Switzerland's Financial Market Supervisory Authority has partnered with Japan's Financial Services Agency and the United Kingdom's Financial Conduct Authority with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to launch various crypto pilot initiatives.
As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the authorities want to conduct pilots specifically related to fixed income, foreign exchange and asset management products. “As pilots grow in scale and complexity, there is a need for closer cross-border collaboration between policymakers and regulators,” MAS said.
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