The Basel Committee issues recommendations and sets international standards in the area of banking supervision. It brings together high-ranking representatives of banking supervisory authorities and central banks from 28 jurisdictions, including Switzerland, which is represented by FINMA and the SNB.

The Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) promotes the safety and efficiency of cashless payment arrangements and market infrastructures via which financial market transactions are cleared or settled.

The Committee on the Global Financial System (CGFS) monitors developments in international financial markets and analyses their impact on financial stability.

The Markets Committee examines current developments in money, foreign exchange, capital and commodity markets, as well as the functioning of these markets.

Project Helvetia involves collaboration between the SNB, the BIS and SIX Group Ltd, operator of the Swiss financial market infrastructure. The focus is on the integration of a central bank digital currency into a financial market infrastructure for the custody and transfer of tokenised securities based on distributed ledger technology (DLT). In an initial phase, two approaches were explored and tested: first the issue of central bank tokens for financial institutions, known as wholesale CBDC, and second the creation of an interface between DLT-based financial market infrastructure and the Swiss Interbank Clearing payment system.

The final report, which appeared in December 2020, indicates that both approaches are technically feasible and can be implemented under civil law within Switzerland's legal framework. The project also highlighted advantages and disadvantages of a token solution compared to the interface approach. These will be analysed in more detail in a second phase. Furthermore, the project will be expanded to include the integration of wholesale CBDC into the accounting systems of banks and the SNB, and to run in a cross-border context. This phase of the project, too, serves exclusively to develop a better understanding of CBDC for financial institutions and to gather relevant experience. The final report of Project Helvetia (in German and English) and explanatory videos (in English) are available via the link below.

Project Jura explored settling foreign exchange (FX) transactions in euro and Swiss franc wholesale CBDCs as well as issuing, transferring and redeeming a tokenised euro-denominated French commercial paper between French and Swiss financial institutions. It continues the experimentation conducted by the SNB and the BIS Innovation Hub under Project Helvetia and is part of a series of wholesale CBDC experiments initiated by the BdF in 2020.

The experiment explored the direct transfer of euro and Swiss franc wholesale CBDCs between French and Swiss commercial banks on a single distributed ledger technology platform operated by a third party. Tokenised assets and foreign exchange transactions were settled safely and efficiently using payment-versus-payment and delivery-versus-payment mechanisms. The experiment was conducted in a near-real setting, used real-value transactions and met current regulatory requirements.

Issuing wholesale CBDCs on a third-party platform and giving regulated non-resident financial institutions direct access to central bank money raises intricate policy issues. Jura explored a new approach including subnetworks and dual-notary signing, which may give central banks comfort to issue wholesale CBDCs on third-party platforms and to provide non-resident financial institutions with access to wholesale CBDCs.

Project Jura contributes to the ongoing G20 work on cross-border payments. The experiment is of exploratory nature and should not be interpreted as an indication that the BdF or the SNB plan to issue wholesale CBDCs.

Project Mariana studied the cross-border trading and settlement of spot FX transactions in Swiss franc, euro and Singapore dollar wholesale CBDCs between simulated financial institutions on the basis of new technological concepts from decentralised finance (DeFi).

The feasibility study involved: (i) a common technical token standard for a public blockchain to facilitate exchange and interoperability between various currencies; (ii) bridges for seamless wholesale CBDC transfers between various networks; and (iii) an automated market maker (AMM), which is a specific type of decentralised exchange for the automatic trading and settlement of spot FX transactions.

The study was undertaken by the SNB in collaboration with the Banque de France, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and three BIS Innovation Hub Centres (Swiss, Eurosystem and Singapore).

Project Rio is developing a prototype of a platform for monitoring fast-paced markets. In recent decades, new technologies have sharply accelerated the pace of trading, for example on foreign exchange markets. Trading is also increasingly fragmented, i.e. takes place on ever more platforms in parallel. This poses a challenge to central banks when it comes to tracking these developments in such fast-paced markets. The prototype developed at the Swiss Centre should enable the rapid market movements and large volumes of data emanating from various trading centres to be processed in real time. This will provide central banks with an instrument for monitoring and analysing trading conditions.

Project Tourbillon developed two prototype retail CBDC platforms to provide cash-like payer anonymity. There is a demonstrated public need for anonymous payments. The concept of payer anonymity offers cash-like anonymity to consumers, but not to the recipients of payments. In these prototypes, a consumer can pay a merchant in retail CBDC without revealing personal data to anyone: neither the merchant, nor the banks, nor the central bank. However, the merchant's identity is disclosed to the merchant's bank (as part of the payment), which treats it confidentially, in line with standard procedure. This concept helps reduce tax evasion or illicit payments. While the central bank can see the transaction amount in order to prevent double spending, it remains unaware of any details regarding the consumer or the merchant.

In addition, one of the prototypes increased security in the event of attacks by quantum computers by implementing quantum-safe blind signatures. It could be shown that, while the approach is possible, it would significantly reduce transaction volume compared to the other approach, which uses conventional cryptography, and that it would also entail additional research and development costs.

Project Promissa studies the tokenisation of financial instruments known as promissory notes, which are used by multilateral development banks for financing, among other things. Tokenisation is intended to facilitate the custody and management of these still paper-based instruments, and thus to reduce costs and sources of error. The project is a collaboration between the BIS Innovation Hub, the World Bank and the SNB.

Project Neo seeks to support central banks in their monetary policy decision-making by capturing data from novel sources and analysing these data using innovative methods such as artificial intelligence (AI). Statistical surveys are often available only with a considerable time lag. To address this, the project aims, for example, to measure economic activity with the help of data on passenger and cargo transport, air pollution, electricity consumption, retail trade and payment transactions, and to do so in a timely and granular fashion.

In Project Agorá, the BIS, together with seven central banks (Banque de France, representing the Eurosystem; Bank of Japan; Bank of Korea; Banco de México; the SNB; Bank of England; and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York), is exploring how tokenised customer deposits at commercial banks can be seamlessly integrated with wholesale CBDC in a public-private programmable core financial platform, with an eye to overcoming inefficiencies in cross-border payments.

The Special Drawing Right (SDR) is an IMF unit of account calculated on the basis of the weighted exchange rates of the US dollar, euro, renminbi, yen and pound sterling.

Quotas are the IMF's main source of financing. Member states' quotas are based broadly on their relative economic position in the world economy. Switzerland's quota amounts to SDR 5,771.1 million, which corresponds to 1.21% of the IMF's quota total of SDR 477 billion. The used portion of the Swiss quota paid to the IMF is a liquid item on which the SNB can draw on request.

The New Arrangements to Borrow (NAB) form a financial safety net for the IMF. As a supplement to its quotas, the NAB can be activated to provide the IMF with up to SDR 361 billion if necessary. To date, there are 38 member countries participating in the NAB. The SNB's maximum loan commitment under the NAB is SDR 11,081.3 million. The used portion of the Swiss quota and the funds used under the NAB are part of the reserve assets.

Bilateral borrowing arrangements strengthen the IMF's lending capacity when the quota and NAB resources have been largely exhausted. To date, many member countries or their central banks have committed funds under bilateral borrowing arrangements, with the total amounting to around SDR 138 billion. The SNB has granted the IMF a bilateral credit line of CHF 3,662 million.

The Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT) provides loans to low-income member countries at preferential terms. The PRGT is financed through bilateral contributions and through the IMF's own resources. The SNB finances the Swiss contribution to the PRGT capital in the form of loans. The Confederation guarantees the SNB the timely repayment of the loans, including interest; it also finances the interest subsidies.

The Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST) provides loans to low-income and vulnerable IMF member countries. These loans support longer-term macroeconomic reforms and structural measures to address climate change and pandemic preparedness. The aim is also to strengthen the stability and resilience of the global financial system. The RST is funded by voluntary loans and contributions from creditor countries. The SNB grants a loan to the IMF that is, like the PRGT, federally guaranteed.

The SDR is not just a unit of account, it is also a reserve currency created by the IMF and an international means of payment. Under the Voluntary Trading Arrangement with the IMF, the SNB has committed to purchase (+) or sell (-) SDRs against foreign currencies (USD, EUR) up to an agreed maximum of SDR 4,410 million.