SWIFT plans to create a new platform in the next one to two years to connect central bank digital currencies with the existing financial system, Reuters reported.

The move, which will be one of the most significant for the nascent CBDC ecosystem given SWIFT's key role in banking, is likely to be tailored to coincide with the launch of the first major banking operations.

About 90% of the world's central banks are now exploring digital versions of their currencies. Most of them do not want to give up Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, but face technological difficulties.

SWIFT head of innovation Nick Kerigan said its latest study, which took six months and involved a group of 38 members of central banks, commercial banks and settlement platforms, was one of the largest global collaborations on CBDCs and “tokenized” assets. The main goal was to ensure that CBDCs from different countries could be shared, even if they were built on different underlying technologies or “protocols,” thereby reducing the risks of payment system fragmentation.

The research also found that they could be used in highly complex trade or foreign exchange payments and could potentially be automated to speed up and reduce the cost of processes.

Kerigan said the results also proved banks could leverage existing infrastructure, which was seen as a "great" success by participants.

The study involved the central banks of Germany, France, Australia, Singapore, the Czech Republic and Thailand, as well as a number of banks, and many large commercial banks, including HSBC, Citibank, Deutsche Bank, Societe Generale, Standard Chartered, and at least two bank from China.

The idea is that once Interlink's solution scales, banks will have one main global connection point capable of processing digital asset payments, rather than thousands if they created a separate point for each counterparty.

“We're looking at a roadmap for production (product launch) in the next 12 to 24 months,” Kerigan said in an interview. “The process is moving from the experimental stage to something that becomes reality.”

Countries such as the Bahamas, Nigeria and Jamaica already have CBDCs in operation. China has made good progress in using the electronic yuan. The European Central Bank is also developing a digital euro, and the Bank for International Settlements, a global group of central banks, is conducting numerous cross-border trials.

However, the main advantage of SWIFT is that its existing network is already available in more than 200 countries and connects more than 11,500 banks and funds that use it to send trillions of dollars every day.