Swiss National Bank Just Launched Wholesale CBDC Pilot Program

According to the latest reports, it seems that the CBDCs are flooding the financial world. Check out the following reports below.

According to a report from Reuters, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) is preparing to launch a pilot program for a new “wholesale” central bank digital currency (CBDC).

SNB Chairman Thomas Jordan announced the plan during a financial conference held in Zurich on Monday. The pilot will be initiated on Switzerland’s SIX digital exchange in the near future.

“This is not just an experiment, it will be real money equivalent to bank reserves and the objective is to test real transactions with market participants.”

According to reports, the program will only deal with wholesale CBDCs, which are exclusively used for big transactions between financial institutions.

Jordan has raised concerns over retail CBDCs, which are accessible to the general public. The chairman is worried about their potential impact on the financial system.

“We do not exclude that we will never introduce retail [CBDCs] but nevertheless we are a little bit prudent at the moment.”

Reuters also reported the fact that Andréa M. Maechler, an outgoing member of SNB’s governing board, said in a separate panel that cash would remain a mainstay of the Swiss financial system.

“It is the one way that retail households can hold central bank money. That feature needs to be maintained irrespective of the technology.”

Peter Goettler, the president of the Cato Institute, believes that Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) could potentially have a significant impact on citizens globally, as they are seen as a countermeasure to the increasing popularity of cryptocurrencies.

He describes CBDCs as a kind of “trojan horse” for people worldwide.

He stated the following:

“Cryptocurrencies also provide the ability to transact outside of the traditional financial sector and with more privacy. In response to the popularity of this innovation, governments are pursuing the exact opposite: more centralisation, surveillance and control.”