Central banks of China and United Arab Emirates join digital currency project for cross-border payments
The Digital Currency Institute of the People's Bank of China and the
Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates join the Multiple CBDC
(m-CBDC) Bridge, a cross-border payments project.
The m-CBDC
Bridge is a co-creation initiative run in partnership with the BIS
Innovation Hub, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Bank of
Thailand.
The project aims to develop a proof-of-concept
prototype to facilitate real-time cross-border foreign exchange
payments on distributed ledger technology.
The Digital
Currency Institute (DCI) of the People's Bank of China (PBC) and the
Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates (CBUAE) have joined a central
bank digital currency project for cross-border foreign currency
payments.
The m-CBDC Bridge initiative is run in partnership
with the BIS Innovation Hub (BISIH), the Hong Kong Monetary Authority
(HKMA) and the Bank of Thailand (BoT). It will further explore the
capabilities of distributed ledger technologies (DLT) by developing a
proof-of-concept (PoC) prototype to support real-time cross-border
foreign exchange payment-versus-payment transactions in multiple
jurisdictions, operating 24/7. It will analyse business use cases in a
cross-border context with both domestic and foreign currencies.
The m-CBDC Bridge project will foster a conducive environment
for more central banks in Asia as well as other regions to jointly
study the potential of DLT in enhancing the financial infrastructure
for cross-border payments.
The aim of the project, which was
initiated by the HKMA and the BoT under the name Inthanon-LionRock and
renamed upon the accession of the BIS Innovation Hub Centre in Hong
Kong SAR, the DCI of the PBC and the CBUAE, is to propose solutions
and concepts to alleviate the current pain points in making cross-
border fund transfers. These include inefficiencies, high cost and
complex regulatory compliance.
The participating central
banks will take into account the results of the PoC work to evaluate
the feasibility of the m-CBDC Bridge project for cross-border fund
transfers, international trade settlement and capital market
transactions in their own jurisdictions.
About the BIS
Innovation Hub
The BIS Innovation Hub (BISIH) was established
in 2019 to identify and develop in-depth insights into critical trends
in financial technology of relevance to central banks, to explore the
development of public goods to enhance the functioning of the global
financial system, and to serve as a focal point for a network of
central bank experts on innovation. It complements the already well
established cooperation within the BIS-hosted committees. At present,
there are Hub centres in Switzerland, Singapore and Hong Kong SAR. In
the coming months, new centres will open in Toronto, London,
Frankfurt/Paris and Stockholm. The BIS has also formed a strategic
partnership with the Federal Reserve System in New York.