Project Helvetia has entered a pilot phase designed to investigate how financial institutions can use central bank money on a distributed ledger technology (DLT)-based financial market infrastructure. The main objective is to support private-sector innovation by enabling financial market participants to explore the added value of tokenisation and integrated settlement using the same infrastructure on which the securities are issued. Wholesale central bank digital currency (wholesale CBDC) issued directly on this platform constitutes the settlement asset.

In the context of the Helvetia pilot, Swiss franc wholesale CBDC is a form of digital franc that is issued exclusively to financial institutions by the central bank, the SNB, on a DLT-based platform.
In economic and legal terms, wholesale CBDC issued within the framework of the Helvetia pilot is an alternative representation of sight deposits held at the SNB.

For the purposes of the Helvetia pilot, the SNB issues wholesale CBDC on the SIX Digital Exchange (SDX) platform, the regulated platform for digital assets operated by SIX Group, and defines the conditions for the settlement of wholesale CBDC transactions (e.g. settlement hours and use cases).

The pilot is a public-private collaboration between the SNB, SDX and interested and eligible financial institutions. Currently, Banque Cantonale Vaudoise, Basler Kantonalbank, Commerzbank, Hypothekarbank Lenzburg, Raiffeisen Switzerland, UBS and Zürcher Kantonalbank are authorised to hold wholesale CBDC.

No, the number participants is not limited. There are, however, specific criteria for participation (cf. 'criteria for participation in pilot').

In order to participate, financial institutions must have a sight deposit account with the SNB, be admitted to the Swiss Interbank Clearing (SIC) payment system, and be members of SDX. To qualify as eligible holders of wholesale CBDC in the Helvetia pilot, financial institutions need to sign a contract with the SNB and successfully complete the Helvetia testing. SDX and the SNB will guide interested financial institutions during the admission process. The SNB's Helvetia team may be contacted via helvetia@snb.ch.

During the pilot, participating institutions may use wholesale CBDC to settle transactions and transfers that are supported by the SDX platform and permitted under the general terms and conditions applicable to the SDX platform, with the exception of those that are explicitly excluded by the SNB.
Participants can also propose new use cases. SDX is the point of contact for participants to refine or extend existing use cases, and for new use cases (market-advisory-group@sdx.com).