Global bank messaging network SWIFT is planning a new platform in the next one to two years to connect the wave of central bank digital currencies now in development to the existing finance system, it has told Reuters.
The move, which would be one of the most significant yet for the nascent CBDC ecosystem given SWIFT's key role in global banking, is likely to be fine-tuned to when the first major ones are launched.
SWIFT's head of innovation, Nick Kerigan, said its latest trial, which took 6 months and involved a 38-member group of central banks, commercial banks and settlement platforms, had been one of the largest global collaborations on CBDCs and "Tokenised" assets to date.
The European Central Bank has digital euro one underway too, while the Bank for International Settlements, the global central bank umbrella group, is running multiple cross-border trials.
SWIFT's main advantage though is that its existing network is already usable in over 200 countries and connects more than 11,500 banks and funds who use it to send trillions of dollars every day.
SCALABLE OPTION The firm has gone from being virtually unknown outside banking circles to a household name since 2022 when it cut most of Russia's banks off from its network as part of the West's sanctions for the invasion of Ukraine.
A raft of heavyweight commercial banks including HSBC, Citibank, Deutsche Bank, Societe Generale, Standard Chartered and the CLS FX settlement platform all took part too, as did at least two banks from China.
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