SWIFT, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, has unveiled the findings from the second phase of its sandbox testing for the central bank digital currency (CBDC).
The experimentation encompassed digital trading with instant settlement utilizing smart contracts, the connection of tokenization platforms to facilitate atomic delivery versus payment, and collaboration with financial infrastructure firms. Having completed the sandbox experiments, SWIFT now plans to advance the beta version of the connector, with a particular focus on implementing smart contracts across networks, secure token transfer across networks using cryptographic mechanisms, and maintaining data and programmability of tokens across networks.
Over 125 participants conducted more than 750 simulated transactions to demonstrate the complex use cases of the SWIFT CBDC interlinking solution. Notable entities involved in the second phase of the sandbox testing included ANZ, Citibank, Deutsche Bank, DTCC, HSBC, Société Générale, Standard Chartered, Sumitomo Mitsui, Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank, and at least seven central banks or monetary authorities.
The testing process, which commenced in September, represents SWIFT's commitment to exploring future use cases extensively. Concurrently, the organization has been conducting experiments with settlement using a unified ledger model, emphasizing the utilization of existing technologies, including SWIFT's own infrastructure.