Heuking advises consortium on its collaboration with the Banque de France, the Swiss National Bank and the BIS Innovation Hub on a wholesale CBDC cross-border experiment
Heuking has advised a private sector consortium led by Accenture and including Credit Suisse, Natixis, R3, SIX Digital Exchange and UBS which on December 8 announced that, together with the Banque de France, the Swiss National Bank and the Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub, it has con-ducted a cross-border settlement experiment (entitled Project Jura) using two wholesale CBDCs («wCBDC») and a digital financial instrument.
This follows Heuking’s advice to SIX Digital Exchange related to the recent granting on FINMA licenses for the operation of a Stock Exchange and as a Central Security Depository (CSD) for digital assets in Switzerland.
Marcel Hostettler, Banking & Finance Partner at Heuking says:”We are honored to have advised SIX Dig-ital Exchange and the consortium in respect of Project Jura, a novel cross-border settlement experiment. The experiment was highly complex as it included cross-border settlement in wCBDC on a single plat-form with three sub-networks, the issuance, redemption and secondary market settlement of digital finan-cial instruments on a delivery versus payment basis against euro wCBDC, as well as cross- border trans-actions involving the payment versus payment settlement of euro wCBDC and Swiss franc CBDC be-tween banks domiciled in France and Switzerland.”
Linklaters was legal lead advisor and Heuking was responsible for all Swiss legal matters. For more in-formation, please see the press releases issued by Accenture, the Banque de France, the Swiss National Bank and the Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub.
- Banque de France: https://www.banque-france.fr/en/communique-de-presse/banque-de-france-bank-international-settlements-and-swiss-national-bank-conclude-successful-cross
- Accenture: https://newsroom.accenture.com/news/new-report-by-accenture-banque-de-france-bis-innovation-hub-and-the-swiss-national-bank-outlines-novel-approach-for-cross-border-settlements.htm
- Jura Report: https://www.banque-france.fr/sites/default/files/media/2021/12/08/rapport_jura_v11_0.pdf
- Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dMyKC5lFlU&feature=youtu.be
Counsel to private sector consortium
Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek:
Marcel Hostettler (Lead, Banking & Finance),
Dr. Anna Wehrmüller (Banking & Finance), both Zurich
Dr. Anne de Boer, LL.M. (Capital Markets), Stuttgart
Dr. Christoph Gringel (Banking & Finance), Frankfurt
