BIS Claims a CBDC Interoperability Victory – While US Congressman Bids to Block Digital USD
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) says it has made another breakthrough in its central bank digital currency (CBDC) interoperability project – claiming that it has “successfully tested” the integration of wholesale CBDC settlement with commercial banks.
The BIS has been working on what it calls Project Helvetia, part of a network of projects aimed at helping central banks roll out CBDC offerings – and allowing them to operate in a global financial network. The bank is also looking to help bolster cross-border payment progress, which has found itself lagging behind blockchain and crypto-related innovation.
In a press release, the BIS said that it and the central Swiss National Bank (SNB) and SIX, a Swiss financial infrastructure service provider, had integrated a pilot wholesale CBDC into the “existing back-office systems and processes” of its five commercial bank partners, namely Citi, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Hypothekarbank Lenzburg, and UBS.
Benoît Cœuré, the head of the BIS’ Innovation Hub, was quoted as stating:
“We have demonstrated that innovation can be harnessed to preserve the best elements of the current financial system, including settlement in central bank money, while also potentially unlocking new benefits. As digital ledger technology [DLT] goes mainstream, this will become more relevant than ever.”
According to the BIS, the project was an “investigation on the settlement of tokenized assets” in central bank money, and made use of DLT technology to “focus” on a range of “operational, legal and policy questions.”
However, just like most central banks who are furtively working on CBDC pilots, the SNB was keen to add a disclaimer, remarking:
“Project Helvetia is purely experimental and does not
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