Norway, Sweden, and Israel central banks launch “Project Icebreaker” with BIS to explore central bank digital currencies

The official announcement of partnerships between the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) and the central banks of Norway, Sweden, and Israel on “Project Icebreaker” to test international retail and remittance payments with central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) was reported on Wednesday, 28 September 2022.

The collaboration’s goal is to improve cross-border payments by reducing costs and increasing speed and transparency.

According to BIS, the project will run through the end of the year, with a final report expected in the first quarter of 2023.

“This first-of-a-kind experiment will dig deeper into the technology, architecture and design choices and trade-offs, and explore related policy questions. These learnings will be invaluable for central banks thinking about implementing CBDCs for cross-border payments,” said Beju Shah, Head of the BIS Innovation Hub Nordic Center.

Previously, other countries’ central banks, including Hong Kong, Thailand, China, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, and South Africa have also launched similar projects, which related to improving cross-border transactions.

Source:

• https://www.bis.org/about/bisih/topics/cbdc/icebreaker.htm
• https://cointelegraph.com/news/israel-norway-and-sweden-central-banks-partner-with-bis-to-explore-cbdc
• https://www.reuters.com/technology/sweden-other-central-banks-test-digital-currency-payments-2022-09-28/

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