The Swiss Central Bank to announce the country is ready for the launch of CBDC

Switzerland is the next country ready to launch its own CBDC. According to the Swiss central bank, the testing of the digital currency ended successfully, and the financial regulator is going to schedule the CBDC launch for January 2022. Meanwhile, this step needs to be governmentally approved at first.

Thomas Moser, the head of SNB, highlights the financial system is ready for upgrades: “We’ve taken all the details into account which made us technically prepared for the launch. We understand the way to make transactions. The only question is whether we can start using CBDC from the legislative point of view.”

The Helvetia project commenced in 2019. Five international banks, including Citibank, Credit Suisse, and JP Morgan joined the initiative. Within the experiment, the Swiss national bank had been testing the opportunities of CBDC transactions integrated into banking infrastructures.

In September, FINMA (Swiss financial regulator) licensed the Helvetia project, unlocking new horizons. The first real digital transactions are going to take place in November.

Furthermore, Thomas Moser highlighted that the national financial system prefers to use Central Bank Digital Currencies over stablecoins which are still risky assets.