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The Swiss National Bank (SNB) has partnered with six commercial banks, including UBS, Zuercher Kantonal Bank, Banque Cantonale Vaudoise, Basler Kantonalbank, Commerzbank (ETR:), and Hypothekarbank Lenzburg for a wholesale Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) pilot project. The initiative, dubbed Helvetia Phase III, aims to tokenize the Swiss franc for digital securities transactions on SDX, a regulated Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) platform.
The pilot project, led by SNB Chairman Thomas Jordan, is set to run from December 2023 to June 2024. It will experiment with Swiss Franc wholesale CBDC to settle transactions with tokenized assets. This approach promises increased efficiency and transparency in certain regulated sectors.
Wholesale CBDCs are designed specifically for interbank transfers and are being considered by euro area central banks as well. They differ from retail CBDCs, which are intended for consumer use. Privacy concerns associated with retail CBDCs are deemed less significant for their wholesale counterparts.
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