Project mBridge facilitates cross-border payments with international collaboration

Multi-central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) project mBridge is of rising importance in facilitating cross-border payments, said many attendees at a Financial Street Forum event in Beijing on Wednesday.

Titled "Project mBridge: Bridging Global Economics with Central Bank Digital Currencies", the seminar attracted over 200 participants.

Zhou Xiaochuan, vice chairman of the Boao Forum for Asia and a former governor of the People's Bank of China, emphasized that the rapid growth and connectivity of Asian economies have propelled the mBridge project from its inception to the current implementation stage.

"The fast development of interconnections of the Asian economy is a major reason," said Zhou.

Lu Lei, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, also said that the mBridge project adheres to the principles of "do no harm, compliance, and interoperability." He emphasized that it has the potential to act as a public good, fostering the healthy development of the international monetary system.

"It is a cross-border project. Certainly, we face some differences in terms of regulations, laws, and policies issues, but so far, we have a common objective. That common objective is how to facilitate better, more cost-effective, and more secure cross-border transactions," said Shu-pui Li, advisor in the Governor's office at the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates.

Li added that efforts are underway to harmonize these differences while pursuing the same objective. This infrastructure will facilitate instant settlement in central bank money and enable Payment versus Payment transactions to be conducted.

"I think it's very inspiring that we have the central bank under this panel as well as commercial bank expertise, so which means we cover the public sector as well as the private sector opinions. It's actually very crucial for all those opinions to combine together to make it a successful launch and for the benefit of deliver to the final customer," said Chany Xiong, executive director of Cash Products Management at Standard Chartered Bank.

Initiated in 2021, mBridge, whose project team now consists of the BIS Innovation Hub Hong Kong Centre, the Bank of Thailand, the Digital Currency Institute of the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates, and the local monetary authority of China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region - Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), is dedicated to building a CBDC-centered cross-border payment platform featuring high efficiency, low cost, high scalability and regulatory compliance.

On June 5, mBridge was announced to have reached the minimum viable product (MVP) stage, which caught much market attention, according to news posted on the website of the PBOC.

By early June, there were more than 26 observing members for mBridge, including the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the Bank of France, the Bank of Korea and the International Monetary Fund, among others.

Project mBridge facilitates cross-border payments with international collaboration

Project mBridge facilitates cross-border payments with international collaboration

China plays an important and unique role among BRICS countries in leading the Global South and promoting multilateralism, said Gustavo de Carvalho, a senior researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs.

While participating in the BRICS Plus leaders' dialogue during the final day of the Kazan summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that the collective rise of the Global South is a distinctive feature of the great transformation across the world.

"We support more Global South countries in joining the cause of BRICS as full members, partner countries or in the 'BRICS Plus' format so that we can combine the great strength of the Global South to build together a community with a shared future for mankind," Xi said.

No matter how the international landscape evolves, said the Chinese president, "we in China will always keep the Global South in our heart, and maintain our roots in the Global South."

In an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN), Gustavo de Carvalho spoke highly of Xi's speech.

"He talks a lot about this fragmented global context and challenges that countries not only China, but also emerging countries and countries from the Global South are facing from this increasing polarization, but also positioning China to a certain degree to be able to further engage with other BRICS members when it comes to specific issues, whether it's in relation to green development, whether it's in in relation to this what he calls this high quality development, type of approach which very much comes together with narratives that we've seen here in Africa, for instance, the idea of not just engaging with trade, but also inserting the continents in a more high value portion of the global supply chains. I think that brings a very important process but also that it allows that diversity and varieties of views that we have within BRICS to still be accommodated in positions, for instance, like the ones that China presented," said Gustavo de Carvalho.

The first-ever summit of an expanded BRICS took place from Tuesday to Thursday in Kazan, the capital city of western Russia's Republic of Tatarstan.

BRICS began with Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, and has now evolved into an influential international cooperation mechanism with an expanded membership.

Besides the countries that officially joined the BRICS family on Jan 1, 2024, over 30 countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Türkiye and Azerbaijan have either formally applied for or expressed interest in the membership.

China plays key role in pursuing true multilateralism: expert