The Bank of England, Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), and Bank of Thailand (BOT) have successfully completed a trial under Project Meridian FX APAC, which tested synchronised cross-border foreign exchange (FX) settlement. This initiative marks a significant step towards enhancing interoperability across diverse wholesale settlement systems.
The project involved testing payment-versus-payment (PvP) FX settlement and multilateral net FX settlement across the central banks’ test environments, incorporating both Real-Time Gross Settlement and Distributed Ledger Technology-based systems. Partior, the project’s delivery partner, developed and tested the Synchronisation Operator prototype, which played a crucial role in the trial.
The trial demonstrated that synchronised settlement can be achieved across central bank systems with varying technologies, reducing settlement risk and improving liquidity efficiency. It also addressed legal, regulatory, and oversight considerations, with input from the Reserve Bank of Australia and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas as observers.
The findings are detailed in three reports: Executive Summary and Introduction, Technical Report, and Policy Report. These documents provide insights for further exploration of synchronisation as a means to enable safer and more efficient FX settlement.
Tom Mutton from the Bank of England highlighted the project’s practical evidence in reducing risk and improving efficiency in cross-border FX transactions. Kenneth Gay from MAS noted the project’s role in enabling PvP settlement across diverse systems, whilst Pucktada Treeratpituk from BOT emphasised the project’s success in modernising wholesale settlement infrastructure.
The results lay a foundation for future collaboration and potential expansion to additional jurisdictions, currencies, and transaction scenarios.
