The Bank for International Settlements says a joint experiment conducted with the central banks of Israel and Hong Kong proved the feasibility of a retail central bank digital currency (rCBDC) ecosystem that combines accessibility, competition and preventative cyber security, while retaining key advantages of physical cash.
Project Sela leaned on the Bank of Israel's cyber security expertise and ongoing work on the digital shekel and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's (HKMA) learnings from Project Aurum and e-Hong Kong Dollar.
In Sela, the rCBDC ledger is operated by the central bank without compromising end user privacy as personal identifiers are obfuscated. Retail payments are therefore settled directly on the central bank's balance sheet in a privacy-preserving manner, meaning instant finality for transactions.
A novel type of intermediary, the Access Enabler, is a core part of the system. It handles all customer-facing rCBDC services without ever 'holding' end users' rCBDC at any point in the process, thus eliminating the need to hold funds to ensure liquidity or to reduce settlement risk. Moreover, the Access Enabler does not need to hold funds on its own balance sheet. This removes two significant sources of costs, complexity and risk when compared with current payment service providers, says the BIS.
Bénédicte Nolens, head of the BIS Innovation Hub Hong Kong Centre, says: "Project Sela explored the feasibility of a CBDC system where the central bank operates the retail ledger and a new type of intermediary, called an Access Enabler, provides broader access to the CBDC, promoting competition and innovation. It showed that this can be achieved without compromising cyber security or the privacy of end users from the central bank."