Sveriges Riksbank and the central banks of Israel and Norway and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) announced the launch of Project Icebreaker, a joint exploration of how central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) can be used for international retail and remittance payments.
The collaboration will see the development of a “hub” to which participating central banks will connect their domestic proof-of-concept CBDC systems. The objective is to test some specific key functions and the technological feasibility of interlinking different domestic CBDC systems.
The architecture is designed to enable immediate retail CBDC payments across borders at a significantly lower cost than with existing systems.
The project will run through the end of the year, with a final report expected in the first quarter of 2023.