According to CoinDesk, Saudi Arabia's central bank has become a full participant in Project mBridge, a cross-border experiment with central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) for international trade. The announcement was made by the Switzerland-based Bank for International Settlements (BIS) on Wednesday. Project mBridge was initiated in 2021 as a joint venture between the BIS' innovation arm and the central banks of China, Hong Kong, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The project aims to test the feasibility of CBDCs for instant cross-border trade and other payments using the project's blockchain, the mBridge Ledger.
On Wednesday, BIS also announced that Project mBridge has reached the minimum viable product (MVP) stage after three years. It has invited private sector financial firms to propose new solutions and use cases that would help develop the platform and demonstrate its full potential. Besides the six full participants of mBridge, 27 other official entities have joined as observers. These include the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and the central banks of countries like Norway, South Korea, and Turkey. This gives them access to a 'sandbox' for experimenting with the technology.
Major global financial institutions are also contributing to the project. These include Goldman Sachs, HSBC, and China's six largest state-owned banks.