The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), alongside the mBridge project team, has announced that Project mBridge has reached the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) stage.

This initiative, aimed at addressing cross-border payment challenges through central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and innovative solutions, marks a significant step in enhancing the efficiency and security of international transactions.

Building on feedback and insights from the 2022 pilot, the project team has developed and enhanced the prototype platform in technology, legal, and governance areas.

The four founding central banking institutions—the Bank of Thailand, the Digital Currency Institute of the People’s Bank of China, and the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates and HKMA—have deployed validating nodes in their jurisdictions.

Alongside the BIS Innovation Hub, they have created a governance framework and comprehensive legal framework, including a rulebook, to support the platform’s decentralised nature.

Participating commercial banks in the four jurisdictions have used the MVP platform to conduct real-value transactions in preparation for the release.

As the project enters the MVP stage, the platform will continue to be enhanced, and participation from both the public and private sectors will be broadened. The HKMA and the project team welcome the Saudi Central Bank as the next full participant of the mBridge MVP platform.

The mBridge MVP platform, with its high compatibility, can serve as a testbed for additional technology solutions, new use cases, and interoperability with other platforms. Private sector firms are invited to propose solutions and use cases by completing the participation form from the BIS Innovation Hub.

“With the collaborative efforts of the central banking community and the private sector, the cross-border payment landscape is undergoing significant development. The HKMA is pleased to be an active member of this advanced multi-CBDC exploration and to have contributed to mBridge reaching the MVP stage. We invite other central banks to join us on this journey, either as users to experience the platform’s benefits firsthand or as co-developers to enhance cross-border payments together,”

said Eddie Yue, HKMA’s chief executive.

This article first appeared on fintechnews.hk

Featured image credit: Edited from Freepik