IMF looks to build platform for cross-border CBDC transactions

The director and division chief of IMF’s Monetary and Capital Markets Department will soon publish a paper laying out a blueprint for a platform to support CBDC clearing and settlement transactions between multiple countries.

See related article: Inter-country use key for CBDCs to reach potential: report

Fast facts

• Writing in the organization’s latest quarterly journal, Tobias Adrian and Tommaso Mancini-Griffoli, said the platform will provide a common settlement feature and a common programming language to write smart contracts on the platform.

• The platform will be available for both the public and private sector to use, the article said.

• “The challenge will be to find the right governance arrangements and to mobilize a sufficient number of central banks to pull this off,” said Adrian and Mancini-Griffoli, but IMF is “a good place to start exploring these prospects” with memberships globally.

• In addition to the IMF, Bank for International Settlements has participated in cross-border CBDC projects between several countries, such as the mBridge project involving Hong Kong, Thailand, mainland China and the United Arab Emirates, and the Project Dunbar involving Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and South Africa.

• There are currently 105 countries exploring a CBDC, according to the Atlantic Council.

See related article: US Digital Dollar Project to work with Ripple on CBDC technical sandbox