BIS to leave cross-border payments platform Project mBridge

(Reuters) – The Bank for International Settlements is leaving the cross-border payments platform Project mBridge, which can be taken forward by the central banks behind it, BIS General Manager Agustin Carstens said on Thursday.

Project mBridge, a collaboration launched in 2021 between the BIS and the central banks of China, Hong Kong, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates, was joined by the Saudi Arabian central bank in June. The project has many more observing members.

Carstens made his remarks after being asked whether mBridge could provide a basis for BRICS countries, which include Russia, to get around international sanctions, a notion he rejected.

The BIS is leaving that project not because it was a failure or not because of political considerations but mostly because we have been involved for four years, and it is at a level where the partners can carry it on by themselves,” he said, speaking at a Santander banking conference.

“At the same time I have to say that mBridge is not mature enough to start operating. So many, many years need to happen.”

The BIS, a global central bank umbrella organisation which oversees the project, said in June that mBridge had reached “minimum viable product” stage.

Addressing the sanctions question, Carstens said: “mBridge is not the BRICS bridge and I have to say that categorically. mBridge was not created to cater (to) the needs of BRICS.”

The BIS does not operate with any countries subject to sanctions and this would remain the case, he stressed.

We need to be observant of sanctions and whatever products we put together should not be a conduit to violate any of these sanctions,” added Carstens, a former Mexican central bank chief.

(Reporting by Dave Graham, Editing by Rachel More and Jan Harvey)