The pilot, called Helvetia Phase III, marks the first time the central bank has moved from test environments into production, making wholesale CBDC available for the settlement of real bond transactions.

The banks involved will carry out the transactions on the DLT platform as intermediaries for issuers and investors. The tokenised bonds will be settled against wholesale CBDC on a delivery versus-payment basis.

The pilot with real Swiss franc wholesale CBDC is scheduled to run from December 2023 to June 2024 with participating banks Banque Cantonale Vaudoise, Basler Kantonalbank, Commerzbank, Hypothekarbank Lenzburg, UBS and Zürcher Kantonalbank.

In March 2023, the SNB announced that it would examine three models for settling the cash leg of tokenised asset transactions. One model involves the issuance of wholesale CBDC for settling tokenised assets; another involves the linking of settlement systems for tokenised assets with the existing SIC payment system; and a third involves the use of private, bankruptcy-protected token money that is backed by central bank money.

The upcoming pilot project adopts the first model, for which the SNB will be able to build on the findings of earlier Project Helvetia phases.

SNB chairman Thomas Jordan says: “With this pilot project, we are now, for the first time, making it possible to securely and efficiently settle transactions with tokenised assets on a regulated and productive DLT platform using real wholesale CBDC. We are proud of our internationally pioneering role in this area as we carry out this innovative project together with SIX and the participating banks.”