SWIFT, the inter-bank messaging platform, has onboarded three new central banks for its interoperable CBDC project testing. It has also announced a new phase of its sandbox testing with over 30 financial incorporations.
According to the official release, SWIFT enrolled The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), the National Bank of Kazakhstan, and a third undisclosed central bank in direct testing of the project. All these financial institutions will integrate SWIFT’s proposed solution with their own infrastructure.
SWIFT has initiated a second phase of its CBDC connector’s sandbox testing, where financial institutions could explore applications such as digital trading platforms, forex models, delivery vs payment and liquidity saving mechanisms.
The second phase of sandbox testing has more than 30 participants, including the Reserve Bank of Australia, Deutsche Bundesbank, Bank of Thailand, HKMA, and other banks across the world.
Tom Zschach, the Chief Innovation Officer at SWIFT, said, “Our focus is on interoperability – ensuring that new digital currencies can seamlessly coexist with each other and with today’s fiat-based currencies and payment systems.”
“The financial community has already recognised the strong potential of our CBDC innovations for preventing digital islands while securely bridging the payment systems of today and the future,” Zschach further adds.
The announcement states that 130 countries worldwide, representing 98% of GDP, are exploring CBDCs, with 9 countries having already started the pilot phase. This development could lead to each CBDC’s fragmented use as a domestic currency. SWIFT is addressing this problem by introducing an interoperable platform for all the CBDCs.
“SWIFT [ ].. has prioritised focus within its innovation agenda on interoperability for digital currencies and tokenised assets to enable them to seamlessly scale if and when they are deployed into the financial ecosystem,” the company emphasizes.
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