The Bank for International Settlements and the Swiss National Bank are reportedly jointly investing resources in studying the advantages of blockchain-based CBDC implementation. 

Specifically, the BIS Innovation Hub Swiss Centre (BISIH) has reportedly been successful in finalizing two proofs-of-concept, connecting the current payment network to a distributed ledger, completing tokenized assets settlement with a wholesale CBDC. 

Reportedly referred to as “Project Helvetia” – the new initiative is a collaborative project from the BISIH, the SNB and Switzerland’s top stock exchange, SIX Group. 

The exchange reportedly claimed that Project Helvetia will deep dive into the technological and legal aspects, regarding moving crypto assets via completing the issuance of a wholesale CBDC onto SIX’s proprietary distributed digital asset platform, SIX Digital Exchange.

The new platform is reportedly scheduled to be made available in the upcoming future, providing a wide range of services, nominally issuance, trading, settlement, management and custody of tokenized assets.

Andréa Maechler, a member of the SNB’s governing board, reportedly highlighted that the Swiss central bank does not plan to skip any chances they have at boosting the performance of the existing financial system with emerging technologies. 

“Irrespective of which technologies the financial markets adopt next, the safety and reliability of Swiss financial infrastructure must be preserved. If [distributed ledger technology] can deliver significant improvements in securities trading and settlement, then the SNB will be prepared.”