Currently, digital versions of national currencies are being investigated by 90% of the world's central banks.
SWIFT, a global bank messaging network, told Reuters that it intends to construct a new platform in the next year or two that will link the current financial system with the wave of central bank digital currencies that are currently being developed. This will be one of the most crucial steps for the emerging CBDC ecosystem given SWIFT's crucial position in international banking, and it will probably coincide with the introduction of the first major currencies. Currently, around 90% of central banks worldwide are investigating digital versions of their currencies. Although they are having trouble with the technical difficulties, the majority do not want to fall behind Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. According to Nick Kerrigan, head of innovation at SWIFT, the company's most recent trial, which lasted six months and featured 38 central banks, commercial banks, and settlement platforms, was one of the biggest international partnerships on CBDCs and "tokenized" assets to date.In order to lower the possibility of payment system fragmentation, it concentrated on making sure that CBDCs from various nations could be used together even if they were constructed on different underlying technologies or "protocols." Additionally, it demonstrated their potential for use in extremely complex trade or foreign exchange payments, as well as their potential for automation to speed up and reduce costs.According to Kerrigan, the outcomes, which showed that banks could make use of their current infrastructure, were generally seen as successful.
