According to a report published on the SWIFT site, the company, in cooperation with one of the largest consulting companies Capgemini, has started experiments on international payments using the central bank digital currencies (CBDC) of different countries.
A growing number of central banks around the world are in the advanced stages of exploring CBDCs. Nine, including Nigeria and the Bahamas, are already using their own digital currency.
SWIFT’s head of innovation Nick Kerrigan has warned:
“Today, the global CBDC ecosystem risks becoming fragmented as multiple central banks develop their own digital currencies based on different technologies, standards and protocols. If left unchecked, this fragmentation could lead to digital islands around the world.”
The company is conducting experiments that are testing the feasibility of deploying a gateway on CBDC’s internal network. The gateway will intercept international transactions, transfer them and send them to the SWIFT platform for further transmission to another CBDC network or established payment system.
