SNB To Test Tokenized Bond Transactions Using CBDC

On Nov. 2, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) announced a pilot project called Helvetia Phase III that will involve the issuance of a real wholesale CBDC in Swiss francs using distributed ledger technology offered by Six Digital Exchange, a regulated platform.

The participating banks, including Banque Cantonale Vaudoise, Basler Kantonalbank, Commerzbank, Hypothekarbank Lenzburg, UBS, and Zürcher Kantonalbank, will act as intermediaries for issuers and investors in conducting bond transactions. The settlement of tokenized bonds will be done on a delivery-versus-payment basis using the issued CBDC.

The pilot project is scheduled to run from December 2023 to June 2024 and will also explore the trading and settlement of repurchase (repo) transactions using wholesale CBDC. The project will involve the use of the SIC infrastructure for tokenization and SIX SIS for integration with the traditional bond settlement infrastructure.

The SNB aims to examine different models for settling tokenized asset transactions using CBDCs. The findings from this pilot will contribute to the ongoing research, but the SNB has clarified that it does not represent a commitment to introduce a public CBDC.