Eddie Yue, chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), said the mBridge project could soon expand significantly. He outlined plans for a central bank digital currency (CBDC) project in a speech in Shanghai.
Yue said the test showed that mBridge can provide faster, cheaper and more transparent cross-border payments. Launched in 2021, the project involves the MAS, the central banks of China, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates, as well as commercial banks in these jurisdictions and the Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub (BISIH).
Now mBridge will expand and commercialize. Yue said:
“We look forward to welcoming more central bank partners to this open platform. Soon we will launch a so-called ‘minimum viable product’ designed to pave the way for the gradual commercialization of mBridge.”
Central bank officials associated with the project have previously said that central banks do not have to have their own CBDC to participate in the project. All players currently have CBDCs in the pilot project stage. According to the website cbdctracker.org, the only countries to launch CBDC are the Bahamas, Jamaica and Nigeria.
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mBridge’s progress has attracted the attention of the U.S. Congress. House Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Maxine Waters expressed her concerns during a Sept. 20 hike on the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act introduced by Rep. Tom Emmer that the project could be used to evade economic sanctions. Experts say the key to CBDCs being able to effectively evade sanctions is adoption.
mBridge is the only international CBDC project that China participates in. Its digital yuan is the world’s largest CBDC pilot to date, and the People’s Bank of China has reached multiple agreements with international companies and commercial banks to further adopt the digital yuan. As a result, BNP Paribas (China) and DBS Bank (China) are already offering digital yuan integration to their corporate clients in 2023.
The Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Eddie Yue, has been appointed to a key position at the Bank for International Settlements, a top international financial institution supported by most central banks around the world https://t.co/ZY7a78gFBL
— Caixin Global (@caixin) September 14, 2023
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