Thomas Jordan, chairman of the Swiss National Bank (SNB), reportedly believes that the risks of a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) outweigh the benefits.
While speaking at an event in Zurich, Jordan said the SNB doesn’t think there is a need to roll out a CBDC to the public right now, Reuters reports.
“Consumers and businesses already have access to a wide range of efficient and innovative payment instruments offered by the private sector.
Retail CBDC could fundamentally alter the current monetary system and the role of central banks and commercial banks, with far-reaching consequences for the financial system.”
Last year, the SNB launched a “wholesale” central bank digital currency pilot program. Wholesale CBDCs are restricted to large transactions between financial institutions.
Said Jordan at the time,
“This is not just an experiment, it will be real money equivalent to bank reserves and the objective is to test real transactions with market participants…
We do not exclude that we will never introduce retail [CBDCs] but nevertheless, we are a little bit prudent at the moment.”
This week, Jordan said Swiss franc wholesale CBDCs “can be issued on a third-party platform and used to settle tokenized assets safely and efficiently.”
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