Digital euro, Swiss franc trials were successful, c.banks say

By John Revill

ZURICH (Reuters) – Europe’s first cross-border trial of central bank digital currency payments has been described as a success by the central banks of Switzerland and France, though they said it would not immediately lead to issuance of CBDCs.

Project Jura, named after the mountains between the two countries, is the latest in a series of CBDC trials conducted by central banks keen to rebut the threat from crypto assets.

“Project Jura confirms that a well-designed wholesale CBDC can play a critical role as a safe and neutral settlement asset for international financial transactions,” said Benoît Coeuré, head of the Innovation Hub at the Bank for International Settlements.

The trial, the first time a digital euro and Swiss franc were fully tested, showed it was possible to settle foreign exchange transactions in euro and Swiss franc wholesale CBDCs, as well as issuing, redeeming and transferring tokenised euro-denominated French commercial paper between financial institutions.

(Reporting by John Revill; editing by Sujata Rao)