Sveriges Riksbank, Norges Bank, Bank of Israel, and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) are launching Project Icebreaker to explore how central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) can be used for international retail and remittance payments.
The project aims to develop a hub to which participating central banks can connect their domestic proof-of-concept CBDC system to test the technological feasibility of interlinking different domestic CBDC systems.
The architecture is designed to enable immediate retail CBDC payments across borders at a significantly lower cost than existing corresponding banking systems.
The project will run through the end of the year, with a final report expected in the first quarter of 2023.
“By interlinking our current e-krona platform, developed in a test environment, with the other countries we gain valuable lessons regarding cross-border payments using a CBDC.
We also gain better understanding of important design and policy choices needed to secure cross-border functionalities if we decide to issue an e-krona,”
said Mithra Sundberg, Head of the E-krona Division.
“We are delighted to be part of one of the first experimental test of cross border retail CBDC together with our partners BIS Innovation Hub, Sveriges Riksbank and Bank of Israel. This will add significant value to our experimental test of domestic retail CBDC payments,”
said Torbjørn Hægeland, Norges Bank’s Executive Director for Financial Stability.
Edited from Unsplash
