Swiss Central Bank announces plans to pilot wholesale CBDC with ‘real money’: report

According to a report, the head of the Swiss National Bank (SNB) has announced that the bank will launch a wholesale central bank digital currency (WCBDC) pilot project. reuters Quoted Bank president Thomas Jordan said the project would start “soon”.

The WCBDC will be issued on the Swiss SIX digital exchange and run for a limited time, Jordan said on June 26 at the Point Zero Forum in Zurich. SIX Group also runs the largest stock exchange in Switzerland. Reportedly, Jordan said:

“This is not just an experiment, it will be real money equivalent to bank reserves and it aims to test real transactions with market participants.”

Thomas Moser, a member of the SNB governing board, told Cointelegraph last year that CBDCs could do a good job with decentralized finance. The SNB integrated WCBDCs into the back-office systems of five banks early last year as part of its Project Helvetia, which had previously completed a proof of concept for the WCBDCs.

This was a pivot from a position expressed a year earlier by SNB chief economist Carlos Lenz, who said that blockchain was not a suitable platform for a CBDC, and that the country had no intention of issuing one.

Related: BIS joins French and Swiss central banks on cross-border CBDC project

“We are a little savvy at the moment,” Thomas said of retail CBDCs, but did not rule out their introduction.

Swiss National Bank (SNB) will launch digital currency (CBDC) pilot – SNB President Via @Reuters pic.twitter.com/HG4ZSFGkW9

— Dan Popescu (@PopescuCo) 26 June 2023

Andrea Mechler, a member of the SNB governing board, speaking at a separate event from Jordan at this year’s Point Zero Forum, said the central bank does not anticipate a replacement for cash in the country. Mechler said last year that SNB officials believe the risks with regard to retail CBDCs outweigh the benefits.

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