The Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub, together with the central banks of France and Switzerland, announced today that they are collaborating on a wholesale central bank digital currency experiment for cross-border settlements.
Fast Facts:
- The initiative, named Project Jura, will involve a private sector consortium led by Accenture, with Credit Suisse, Natixis, R3, SIX Digital Exchange and UBS participating.
- Project Jura aims to explore cross-border settlement with two wholesale CBDCs, or wCBDCs, and a French digital financial instrument on a distributed ledger technology platform, according to a statement.
- The experiment will involve “the exchange of the financial instrument against a euro wCBDC through a delivery versus payment settlement mechanism and the exchange of a euro wCBDC against a Swiss franc wCBDC through a payment versus payment settlement mechanism”, with the transactions settled between banks in France and Switzerland.
- “The G20 has made enhancing cross-border payments a priority and laid out a multi-year roadmap to coordinate efforts. The experiment contributes to this work by exploring how wCBDC could enhance speed, efficiency and transparency in cross-border use cases,” said Benoît Cœuré, head of the BIS Innovation Hub.