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New experiments pave way for international payments using CBDCs

New experiments pave way for international payments using CBDCs

Payments,
19 May 2022 | 6 min read

Swift, in collaboration with Capgemini, is conducting new experiments to test how we can interlink domestic CBDCs and take the next step towards seamless cross-border payments involving digital currencies.

Interest in Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) is clearly on the rise. A new report from the Bank for International Settlements says that nine out of 10 central banks are now exploring CBDCs – covering economies that account for more than 90% of global GDP.

An increasing number of these central banks are in the advanced stages of their CBDC exploration, with nine countries already live with their own digital currency – most notably Nigeria and The Bahamas.

Tom Zschach
"Facilitating interoperability and interlinking between different CBDCs being developed around the world will be critical if we are to fully realise their potential."
Tom Zschach Chief Innovation Officer, Swift

Moving from local to global

While much of the current focus on CBDCs – digital versions of existing central bank money – is on how they could help achieve domestic policy goals, there’s one potential blind spot: their use cross-border.

“Facilitating interoperability and interlinking between different CBDCs being developed around the world will be critical if we are to fully realise their potential,” says Thomas Zschach, Chief Innovation Officer at Swift. “Today, the global CBDC ecosystem risks becoming fragmented with numerous central banks developing their own digital currencies based on different technologies, standards and protocols.”

“If left unaddressed, this fragmentation could lead to ‘digital islands’ springing up across the globe,” adds Nick Kerigan, Head of Innovation at Swift. “Different systems and different CBDCs will need to be able to efficiently work together, or it will hamper the ability of businesses and consumers to make frictionless cross-border payments using CBDCs.”

In 2021, Swift conducted a first set of CBDC experiments that demonstrated we could successfully orchestrate a cross-border transaction between one entity on a DLT-based CBDC network and a second running on an established real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system.

Now we are moving to the next level. This time, in collaboration with Capgemini, we are testing how Swift can interlink the multiple domestic-based CBDC networks emerging worldwide to make cross-border payments with CBDCs more seamless and frictionless.

“Navigating decentralisation is complex with many technology choices, operating models, and policy considerations. Our well-defined taxonomy has helped us accelerate our efforts to build CBDC interlinks with Swift,” says Sudhir Pai, Chief Technology & Innovation Officer, Financial Services at Capgemini. “We look forward to continue to collaborate in building industry standards and frameworks with Swift.”

Sudhir Pai
“Navigating decentralisation is complex with many technology choices, operating models, and policy considerations. We look forward to continue to collaborate in building industry standards and frameworks with Swift.”
Sudhir Pai Chief Technology & Innovation Officer, Capgemini.

Addressing the connectivity challenge

A range of obstacles, if not removed, could limit the wider adoption of CDBCs. “While CBDCs offer many opportunities, we see several broad challenges facing their adoption that first need to be overcome. One is that there will be multiple CBDC platforms in development in parallel to the existing traditional payment systems,” says Kerigan.

“CBDCs are new forms of fiat currencies that have the potential to enable new or better payment capabilities,” he adds. “But they are not necessarily a replacement to traditional payment infrastructures and processes. CBDC and traditional infrastructures will need to co-exist and work together for some time to come.”

The emergence of CBDCs raises many questions about how they will work with existing payments systems though. Not all CBDC initiatives will adopt the same technology – for example, some national CBDC platforms are being built using a centralised architecture, whereas others are using distributed ledger technology.

And just as different types of money are used in different payment systems today, the same will eventually be true for CBDCs. “For CBDC payments to flow smoothly and to remove friction, all of these things will need to interoperate,” comments Zschach.

Finding solutions through collaboration

Leveraging our extensive experience in bringing about standardisation and best practices in international payments, we are exploring the role of Swift to solve this interoperability question. In our 2021 experiments, we demonstrated that we could achieve interoperability between CBDCs and existing payments systems, using banks communicating via established messaging.

Our new experiments with Capgemini go a step further. We’re testing how Swift can interlink, at a network level, CBDC platforms regardless of technology, with existing payments systems, via the Swift platform. We’re exploring whether interlinking could offer a highly scalable and easily integrated solution to making CBDC networks ‘cross-border payments ready.’

In these experiments, we’re building and demonstrating the ability to deploy a gateway on a domestic CBDC network. The gateway will intercept cross-border transactions on the network, translate them, and send them to the Swift platform for onward transmission to another CBDC network or established payment system.

This collaborative proof of concept addresses the interlinking of different CBDCs. It also reuses existing bank messaging standards and authentication models, including ISO 20022 and Swift’s Private Key Infrastructure. Our aim is to ensure that the solution can be accessible across Swift’s unique community of more than 11,000 financial institutions in over 200 countries.

“We are combining our deep expertise in payments with significant investments in several CBDC related innovations. This collaborative effort with Swift aims to remove entry barriers for all participants around the globe where CBDC’s coexist with traditional payment rails,” says Rishabh Shah, Head of Capability Development for DeFi, Capgemini.

“We are very pleased to be co-designing the payment rails of the future and in the process pushing the boundaries on CBDCs. This collaborative approach will pave the way for matching current services and preparing for more value-added services,” adds Jeroen Holscher, Global Head - Cards & Payments at Capgemini.

Nick Kerigan
“If the experiments are successful, it will demonstrate that Swift has the capability and technical components to interlink different networks. And it could enable us to help central banks make their own CBDC networks cross-border payment ready.”
Nick Kerigan Managing Director, Head of Innovation, Swift

And the results?

We believe this work could lead to a highly scalable solution offering simple integration that could quickly make any CBDC network cross-border payments ready.

Technically, the proof of concept ensures that, regardless of the platform used (Corda and Quorum are adopted in the experimentation), Swift provides efficient orchestration of transactions. In collaboration with Capgemini, we’re addressing three use cases – CBDC to CBDC, fiat to CBDC, and CBDC to fiat. 

“If the experiments are successful, it will demonstrate that Swift has the capability and technical components to interlink different networks,” says Kerigan. “This would help solve a huge technology and industry challenge facing CBDCs. And it could enable us to help central banks make their own CBDC networks cross-border payment ready.”

We are already well advanced with the experiments and will publish the results to our community shortly. We’ll also be looking beyond CBDCs to how we can enable interoperability between other digital assets and currencies as they are developed and become regulated globally.

Learn more about our innovation activities

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