Singapore's MAS Starts Wholesale CBDC Project With French and Swiss Central Banks

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) started a new initiative called Ubin+ aimed at exploring the use of central bank digital currency (CBDC) for cross-border currency transactions.

Ubin+ will look at testing CBDC's use in foreign exchange and liquidity management, interoperability between ledger and non-ledger payment systems, and the connectivity between CBDC and other digital asset networks.

Project Mariana, the measure aimed at foreign exchange and liquidity management, involves MAS, the central bank of France, Banque de France, and the central bank of Switzerland, Swiss National Bank, along with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub centres. The project will explore foreign exchange transactions with Swiss franc, Euro and Singapore dollar.

The announcement comes a day after MAS, the central bank of Singapore, started two new projects for trade finance and wealth management products.

MAS is also participating in SWIFT’s CBDC Sandbox along with 17 other central banks and commerical banks to test cross-border interoperability.

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