The Swiss National Bank (SNB) has confirmed it doesn’t plan on introducing a CBDC.
Carlos Lenz, the chief economist of SNB, declared that there isn’t any need for a digital franc as the payment system that is currently put in place works very well without one. He also outed himself as a detractor of the blockchain technology, as he called it “very inefficient” and said: “I don’t think a decentralized solution is ideal.”
Switzerland has been at work in researching CBDC since 2019 at the request of the parliament. In December of the same year, the government decided that a digital franc would be too risky. Despite this, Switzerland has proven to be rather friendly to blockchain technology, as even Facebook’s Diem established its base in Switzerland.
Still, despite the negative review of CBDCs from the government, the research continued, and just a couple of days ago, the SNB and the Bank of France began a cross-border CBDC experiment named “Project Jura.”
But Lenz highlighted the fact that the studies are indeed only studies and not implementations.
“This is not about implementation on a productive level. There are currently no plans to introduce digital bank money. This also applies to the wholesale area,” declared Lenz.