The Bank of England, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), and the Bank of Thailand have successfully completed Project Meridian FX APAC, a trial focused on synchronized cross-border foreign exchange (FX) settlement. The trial tested payment-versus-payment (PvP) and multilateral net FX settlement across the central banks' test environments, which included both real-time gross settlement and distributed ledger technology (DLT)-based systems.
The central banks found that synchronized settlement can be achieved across systems with different technologies, reducing settlement risk and improving interoperability. Kenneth Gay, chief fintech officer at MAS, highlighted that the project demonstrated how synchronization could enable PvP settlement across diverse environments.
Partior, the project's delivery partner, developed and tested the prototype 'Synchronisation Operator' used in the trial. The project also explored legal, regulatory, and oversight questions, with the Reserve Bank of Australia and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas participating as observers. The findings are detailed in three published reports.
Tom Mutton, executive director of payments, innovation, and fintech at the Bank of England, noted that the results provide a strong foundation for future collaboration. Potential next steps include extending the approach to more jurisdictions, currencies, and transaction scenarios.