The Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub, the Reserve Bank of Australia, Bank Negara Malaysia, Monetary Authority of Singapore, and South African Reserve Bank will conduct a cross-border payments trial using different central bank digital currencies (CBDC).
This trial will assess if the CBDC makes transactions settlements cheaper and easier. The BIS Innovation Hub’s Singapore Centre is leading the project. These multi-CBDC platforms will enable financial institutions to transact directly in the digital currencies issued by participating central banks. Consequently, eliminating the need for intermediaries and cutting the time and cost of transactions.
The project will work with multiple partners to develop technical prototypes on different distributed ledger technology platforms. It will also explore different governance and operating designs that would allow central banks to share CBDC infrastructures. This access enables it to benefit from the collaboration between public and private sector experts in different jurisdictions.
Project Dunbar’s work will explore the international dimension of CBDC design. It will also support the efforts of the G20 roadmap for enhancing cross-border payments. Its results, expected to be published in early 2022, will inform the development of future platforms for global and regional settlements. Technical prototypes of the shared platforms, developed in collaboration with different technology partners, will be demonstrated at the Singapore FinTech Festival in November 2021.
