Payments in Brief

BIS, SNB and SIX Explore Wholesale CBDCs

Wholesale Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) are a less talked about element of the CBDC conversation, perceived as more operational than revolutionary. However, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has successfully concluded a proof-of-concept project with the Swiss National Bank (SNB) and SIX to explore the performance of the technology to integrate a tokenised digital asset and central bank money.

The project transferred digital assets by issuing a wholesale CBDC onto a distributed digital asset platform. It also linked the platform to the existing wholesale payment system.

Proof-of-concept work such as this is important to understand the practical complexities and policy implications of wholesale CBDCs. The project partners said that the work 'demonstrated the feasibility and legal robustness of both alternatives in a near-live setup'. They also said it would raise 'major policy and governance hurdles', and that more work is needed.