«All this has an impact on our financial system . It will fundamentally change the way we make bank payments today,» he says in an interview with finews.com. He emphasizes, «In ten years, we will likely conduct all our financial transactions on a system comparable to the crypto industry.»

Faster and more secure 

According to the SIX CEO, this information will not have a major impact on trading itself. However, it will for greatly benefit customers: «Transfers will be processed more securely and quickly,» he says. 

The first step in this direction has already been taken by Switzerland. As one of the first countries, a legal framework for blockchain technology came into effect here on August 1, 2021. With the «Helvetia III» project, Switzerland has made further progress in this area.

«Helvetia III» as a trailblazer

«Helvetia III» involves the tokenization of central bank money for the settlement of asset transactions. The pilot project focuses on tokenized central bank money for financial institutions (wholesale central bank digital currency or wCBDC). SIX is conducting the pilot operation of this system in collaboration with the Swiss National Bank (SNB) and six commercial banks.

As part of this project, Helvetia Phase III, a real Swiss franc wCBDC will be used for the settlement of digital securities transactions for the first time. The SIX Digital Exchange (SDX), the world’s leading fully regulated infrastructure for digital assets based on distributed ledger technology (DLT), will serve as a trusted gateway and host the pilot project on its digital asset platform.

No separate systems anymore

Economically and legally, the wCBDC used in «Helvetia III» corresponds to sight deposits on the SNB's balance sheet. Access is limited to banks and financial institutions that participate in the Swiss real-time gross settlement system SIC.

A key difference from traditional sight deposits is that the pilot makes tokenized central bank money available on the same third-party platform where the tokenized assets are held.

Today, financial assets and central bank money are typically held in separate systems that are connected to synchronize payments and asset transfers. With wCBDC, as tested in «Helvetia III,» assets and central bank money are closely integrated. This reduces the need for synchronization and reconciliation and facilitates programmability.