Bank of International Settlements: ‘CBDC pilot successful’; $22 million transacted across 4 jurisdictions

CBDC pilot involving China, Hong Kong, Thailand, and the UAE successful
20 commercial banks, $22 million dollars worth of transactions
CBDC adoption is being considered by the majority of central banks

In a LinkedIn post, the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) with other participants of the project, announced the ‘successful completion of CBDC pilot involving 4 jurisdictions and real-value transactions.’

‘BIS Innovation Hub Hong Kong Center, Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), Bank of Thailand, the Digital Currency Institute of the People’s Republic of China, and the Central Bank of The UAE’ participated in the pilot from August 15th to September 23rd.

20 commercial banks settled various transactions worth $22 million for corporate customers. According to the post, $12 million was issued onto the platform; more than 160 cross-border payments and forex transactions.

The mBridge platform was used for transactions; it is a ‘custom-built’ Decentralized Ledger Technology (DLT) platform launched in 2019. Initially, only the Thai and Hong Kong banks were involved. mBridge or ‘Multiple CBDC bridge’ was developed under project Inthanon Lion-Rock

According to BIS solution architect Daniel Eidan, ‘more commercial aspects will be considered in the future. After the pilot, the project advanced to its third stage. Post the third project, a ‘minimum’ version of the platform will be released in the market with only the core functionality.

Based on the results of the minimum version, and the revisions, a complete CBDC platform will be ready for deployment.

This post added that a ‘detailed progress report’ will be launched this October which will discuss various aspects of the project including regulations and legal aspects, technical design, policy, and a roadmap for the platform.

According to a report released by the BIS this June, close to 90% of central banks is considering CBDC adoption. According to to think tank Atlantic Council’s CBDC tracker, 11 CBDCs have been launched, 15 are in the initial stages of deployment, and 26 are being developed.