ZURICH The Swiss National Bank said on Thursday it will start a pilot project next month using central bank digital currency (CBDC) for financial institutions, with UBS and Zuercher Kantonal Bank among those signed up to take part.

The pilot, using a real Swiss franc wholesale CBDC, will also involve four other commercial Swiss banks - Banque Cantonale Vaudoise, Basler Kantonalbank, Commerzbank and Hypothekarbank Lenzburg.

"With this pilot project, we are now, for the first time, making it possible to securely and efficiently settle transactions with tokenised assets on a regulated and productive DLT platform using real wholesale CBDC," SNB Chairman Thomas Jordan said in a statement.

Tokenised assets are already being used in some areas of the regulated financial system, where they promise to deliver efficiency gains and greater transparency, the SNB said.

The pilot is due to start in December and will run until June 2024.

(Reporting by Noele Illien; editing by Jason Neely)