Project mBridge, the multi-central bank digital currency arrangement that connects different jurisdictions to a single common technical infrastructure, reached minimum viable product stage in June 2024, inviting further international participation.
The initiative was founded by the central banks of Thailand, Hong Kong, China, and the United Arab Emirates, and it operates under the umbrella of the Hong Kong BIS Innovation Hub. Participants include:
- International Monetary Fund (IMF)
- World Bank, and
- 23 central banks from across the world
Among these institutions are African institutions:
- Bank of Namibia
- South African Reserve Bank
- Central Bank of Egypt
CBDC | Global CBDC Platform, #mBridge, Plans to Launch a Minimum Viable Project in 2024
The initiative was founded by the central banks of Thailand, Hong Kong, China, and the United Arab Emirates. Participants include the IMF, World Bank, and 23 central banks from across the… pic.twitter.com/hum87SXasO
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According to Yvonne Tsui, Senior Fintech Director at the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, participating jurisdictions can use the mBridge MVP platform to undertake real-value transactions, subject to their own preparedness.
“The mBridge MVP stage enables the project team to gather feedback from early adopters on an ongoing basis, which in turn allows us to work on iterative enhancements before the platform enters full production stage,” said Tsui.
“Given the high compatibility of the mBridge MVP platform, it could serve as a testbed for add-on technology solutions, such as solutions that could support foreign exchange and liquidity as well as anti-money laundering and combatting the financing of terrorism compliance to supplement the operation of mBridge.
The MVP platform could act as a testbed for new use cases, interoperability with other platforms, as well as evaluating potential synergies with innovative private sector solutions. The project team is now inviting private sector firms to propose solutions and use cases by completing the participation form prepared by the BIS Innovation Hub.”
mBridge’s single system can achieve interoperability with domestic traditional clearing systems and participants from multiple jurisdictions can directly reach one another on a single, integrated technical platform.
According to Tsui, the project already has wide geographical representation in the sense that the observing members come from almost every continent – Africa, Asia, Oceania, Europe, North America and South America.
“Now that the project has reached MVP stage, we believe both central banks and commercial banks that are interested in the project would approach the project team to understand more.
CBDCs are gaining global momentum, with nine out of 10 central banks exploring them, and more than half are now developing or running pilot projects. If other regions are trying to build a platform similar to mBridge in the future, we would very much welcome it, and would like to see these platforms interoperable with one another.”
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