While Swift isn’t directly creating a central bank digital currency, it is providing space for others to build support for cross-border payments involving different CBDCs as well as transactions that bridge CBDCs and traditional currency.
CBDC projects or experiments are underway in nearly 100 countries. But almost all of the work is focused on domestic payments.
Swift, which provides messaging standards for international payments, plans to launch a product in its sandbox for CBDC developers that will enable central banks, commercial banks or a mix of organizations to develop use cases for CBDCs to work across borders. Swift’s initiative comes as CBDC proponents try to develop international networks to boost efficiency for cross-border payments while allowing digital currencies to reach more markets.
