The Bank of England, the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Bank of Thailand have completed a joint experiment showing that banks can settle cross-border foreign exchange transactions across both conventional and blockchain-based systems, without either side having to adopt the same infrastructure.
The project, known as Project Meridian FX APAC, was unveiled Friday. It tested payment-versus-payment settlement, under which one leg of a currency trade clears only once the matching transfer on the other side takes place, cutting the risk that one party pays and the other does not. It also tested multilateral netting, which allows banks to offset obligations against several counterparties rather than settling each trade one by one, lowering the liquidity they must hold.
The trial comes as stablecoins increasingly position themselves as an alternative rail for cross-border payments, promising faster transfers and round-the-clock availability.
“Project Meridian FX APAC provides practical evidence of how synchronised settlement could help reduce risk and improve efficiency in cross-border FX transactions,” said Tom Mutton, the Bank of England’s executive director of payments, innovation and fintech.
The Bank of England said it intends to launch a live synchronisation interface in 2028. Before the technology can be used commercially, however, more work is required on legal arrangements, regulatory oversight and wider participation among institutions.
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