Put Wholesale CBDC interbank settlement (illustrative) back in order

THE DRILL AS TEXT

1. In Wholesale CBDC interbank settlement (illustrative), what happens first, and what follows?
   • The originator instructs Bank Alfa — The paying customer tells its bank to pay a beneficiary at Northstar Bank. This is an instruction in commercial bank money — nothing has settled yet, and the customer never touches the wholesale CBDC directly.
   • Bank Alfa validates and screens the instruction — Bank Alfa checks the instruction, confirms the originator's funds, and runs compliance screening before it will move central-bank money on the platform. In an illustrative two-tier design the banks, not the central bank, hold the customer relationship and perform these checks.
   • Bank Alfa debits the originator — Once accepted, Bank Alfa books the debit on the customer's account. The originator's money has left their account in commercial bank money, but the interbank leg has not settled yet.
   • Central-bank money moves as a token on the platform — Bank Alfa transfers wholesale CBDC to Northstar on the Central Bank platform. This is the settlement leg: tokenized central-bank money moves from one bank's holding to the other's, so the interbank obligation is extinguished in the safest settlement asset.
   • The platform records the transfer as final — The Central Bank platform records the token transfer as final and irrevocable. In an illustrative design this checkpoint is the moment finality is defined — after it, the movement of central-bank money cannot be unwound unilaterally.
   • Northstar credits the beneficiary — Because the interbank leg has already settled in central-bank money with finality, Northstar books the credit to the beneficiary in commercial bank money without waiting for anything else.