The Swiss National Bank (SNB) issued a real CHF wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC) on SIX Digital Exchange (SDX) on 1 December 2023 for the settlement of digital bonds issued by the cantons of Basel-City and Zurich. With this issue, the SNB has become the first financial institution to issue a real wCBDC in Swiss Francs using a distributed ledger technology (DLT) based financial market infrastructure.
Upon announcement by the Swiss National Bank on 2 November 2023, the SNB announced Phase III of Project Helvetia, which will introduce pilot wCBDC transactions for financial institutions from December 1st this year until mid-2024, as part of Project Helvetia Phase III. It was Basler Kantonalbank and Zürcher Kantonalbank that acted as issuer agents for the cantons of Basel-City and Zurich as part of the project.
The digital bonds of Basel-City (ISIN: CH1265890678; DTI: RD9R6Z6FM) and Zurich (ISIN: CH1306117073; DTI: 7JMK1KK1R) have been successfully issued on the production platform of SDX and distributed to investors and banks. The bonds will be listed and tradeable on both the SDX (exchange) and SIX Swiss Exchange (SIX SIS) Central Securities Depositories. Moreover, these bonds will be listed at both the SDX (exchange) as well as the SIX Swiss Exchange as dual-listed bonds.
As David Newns, Head of SIX Digital Exchange, puts it, "A strong collaboration amongst participants of the Swiss financial center resulted in a successful start to the Helvetia III pilot project at SIX.". Having been voted as the most ambitious wCBDC project ever undertaken in the history of capital markets, the settlement of the first securities transactions in wCBDC in a developed economy on regulated blockchain-based infrastructure in a production environment represents a major milestone on the road to the adoption of a tokenized, DLT based financial markets infrastructure by the entire industry.
Having been voted as the most ambitious wCBDC project ever undertaken in the history of capital markets, the settlement of the first securities transactions in wCBDC in a developed economy on regulated blockchain-based infrastructure in a production environment represents a major milestone on the road to the adoption of a tokenized, DLT based financial markets infrastructure by the entire industry.
SDX - what it is and what it does
Founded in 2013, SIX Digital Exchange AG (SDX) is the first fully regulated financial market infrastructure (FMI) for digital asset issuance, trading, settlement, and custody. It is SDX's license from Switzerland's financial market regulator, FINMA, that allows it to operate as a stock exchange (via SDX Trading AG) and central security depository (CSD) on distributed ledger technology. SDX is a member of the SIX Group and as such, adheres to the Group's high quality standards and security requirements.
SDX (SIX Digital Exchange) is a source of information
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Source prnewswire