A wholesale central bank digital currency is a digital central bank liability designed for use by eligible financial institutions in interbank, securities, or other wholesale settlement.
Wholesale CBDC can provide central bank money directly on tokenized or programmable infrastructure. It can be used to settle tokenized securities, foreign exchange, interbank transfers, or other financial-market obligations. Access is generally restricted to institutions eligible to hold central bank money. Designs can use distributed ledgers or other digital infrastructure and can incorporate delivery-versus-payment or programmable settlement functions.
Wholesale CBDC serves institutional settlement. Retail CBDC is designed for use by households and businesses in general-purpose payments.
Wholesale CBDC can allow tokenized assets to settle in central bank money without requiring the cash leg to leave the programmable settlement environment.
Project Helvetia tested settlement of tokenized financial assets using wholesale CBDC issued by the Swiss National Bank in a regulated financial-market infrastructure.