New York News
The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) has launched a new beta test for central bank digital currency (CBDC) interoperability with three participating central banks.
SWIFT announced this week that the National Bank of Kazakhstan and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) are two of the participants in the test; the third central bank remains unknown.
SWIFT’s first CBDC interoperability beta test kicked off earlier this year with over a dozen participants, including BNP Paribas (NASDAQ: BNPQF), HSBC (NASDAQ: HSBC), the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), and Banque de France. These participants conducted about 5,000 transactions between two blockchain networks to great success, SWIFT said at the time.
In the new beta test, the three central banks will integrate the solution with their own payment infrastructure for direct testing, it says.
SWIFT’s aim is to prevent the rise of digital payment islands as every other central bank launches its CBDC, Chief Innovation Officer Tom Zschach says.
“Our focus is on interoperability – ensuring that new digital currencies can seamlessly coexist with each other and with today’s fiat-based currencies and payment systems. This next phase of testing and exploration will help us further refine the solution to ensure it is as ef