The Bank of England, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Bank of Thailand have published the results of a joint trial examining how cross-border foreign exchange transactions can be settled across payment systems built on different technologies. The findings, released on November 13 under Project Meridian FX APAC, demonstrate how synchronisation could help coordinate payments between conventional central-bank infrastructure and distributed ledger technology-based systems.
The project addresses a major challenge in international finance: ensuring that both sides of a currency exchange are completed safely, even when the participating institutions use different settlement networks and operate across different time zones.
Testing Payment-versus-Payment Settlement
The trial examined payment-versus-payment (PvP) foreign exchange settlement, a mechanism designed to ensure that one currency is transferred only when the corresponding payment in another currency is completed. This reduces the risk that one party delivers funds while the other payment fails.
The participating central banks tested transactions across their respective environments, including real-time gross settlement systems and distributed ledger technology-based infrastructure. The work also examined multilateral net foreign exchange settlement, which allows participating banks to offset payments against one another and potentially reduce the amount of liquidity required.
Partior, the project’s delivery partner, developed and integrated the prototype Synchronisation Operator used during the experiments.
Connecting Different Financial Technologies
One of the project’s central findings was that synchronised settlement could operate across systems with different technical designs and operating models. The trial did not require all participants to replace their existing infrastructure with one common blockchain network.
Instead, the approach focused on coordinating the movement of funds between separate systems. This could become increasingly relevant as tokenised assets, digital money and conventional bank deposits develop alongside one another.
The Reserve Bank of Australia and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas also participated as observer central banks, contributing perspectives on legal, regulatory and oversight considerations.
A Potential Route Toward Live Services
The Bank of England has said it plans to launch a live synchronisation interface in 2028. The latest findings provide practical information that could support further development, although the trial does not mean a fully operational international settlement network is already available.
Future work could involve additional jurisdictions, currencies, financial institutions and transaction types. Legal arrangements, operational responsibilities and regulatory oversight will also need to be addressed before wider deployment.
The project highlights how central banks are exploring interoperability between traditional financial infrastructure and blockchain-based systems without assuming that one technology will replace all others.
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