Project mBridge: Successful CBDC project for real-value cross-border payment and foreign exchange transactions

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Authored by: Simon Deane and Sally Lau

On 26 October 2022, the HKMA, together with the Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub (BISIH) Hong Kong Centre, the Bank of Thailand, the Digital Currency Institute of the People’s Bank of China and the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates, published a report entitled “Project mBridge: Connecting economies through CBDC” (“Report”).

Project mBridge (“Project”) experiments with cross-border payments using a common platform based on distributed ledger technology (DLT) upon which multiple central banks can issue and exchange their respective central bank digital currencies (multi-CBDCs). The Report delivers the results and key lessons learnt from the pilot conducted under the Project.

Earlier this year, 20 commercial banks from Hong Kong and three other jurisdictions conducted payment and foreign exchange (FX) payment versus payment (PvP) transactions on behalf of their corporate clients using the mBridge platform. The pilot programme advanced multi-CBDC experimentation by settling real value transactions directly on the platform and on behalf of corporate customers, with over US$12 million of CBDCs issued onto the platform.

The Project will continue the technology-build and testing. The HKMA and the rest of the project team will continue to work towards developing the mBridge platform into a Minimum Viable Product and ultimately a production-ready system.

To view HKMA Press Release, please see here. To access a full copy of the Report, please see here.

Key Contacts

Simon Deane

Consultant | Banking and Finance

Email or call +852 2825 9209