According to CoinDesk, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) is partnering with the SIX Digital Exchange (SDX) and six commercial banks to develop a wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot. The project, called Helvetia Phase III, aims to create a tokenized version of the Swiss franc for use as a settlement instrument between financial institutions in digital securities transactions on the SDX. The participating commercial banks include Banque Cantonale Vaudoise, Basler Kantonalbank, Commerzbank, Hypothekarbank Lenzburg, UBS, and Zürcher Kantonalbank. The pilot is scheduled to run from December 2023 to June 2024.

A wholesale CBDC is used exclusively for transferring money between financial institutions, differing from a retail CBDC, which is available to consumers as a digital form of cash. Central banks in the euro area are also working on plans for a wholesale CBDC, as stated by the governor of France's central bank last month. Retail CBDCs have faced concerns and criticism over potential threats to consumer privacy, which is less of an issue for wholesale CBDCs.