Bank of England, Singapore and Thailand Advance Cross-Border FX Settlement Ahead of 2028 Rollout

The Bank of England, Singapore and Thailand have completed cross-border FX settlement trials as part of Project Meridian FX APAC. The tests showed the capacity to coordinate currency transactions through different payment systems, both traditional and blockchain infrastructure.

Central Banks Demonstrate Cross-Border FX Settlement Across Different Systems

As per the joint release, the trials were conducted on the payment-versus-payment settlement process on classical and blockchain payment infrastructure. This process facilitates the settlement of both sides of a currency exchange, minimizing the chances of partial payment.

Partitor, a technology company, created a prototype of the Synchronization Operator that synchronized transfers between the three settlement systems. The experiments covered real-time gross settlement networks and systems using distributed ledger technology.

The central banks experimented with multilateral net settlement, where the banks could postpone payment commitments while transferring payments. Their results indicated that this could decrease the liquidity needs while maintaining coordinated settlement.

In separate Singapore banking news, Standard Chartered outlined digital asset custody plans. The proposal includes cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and tokenized assets, with compliance to Singapore’s regulations. 

Bank Of England Targets 2028 Synchronization Service Launch

After the experiments, the Bank of England reiterated their plans to launch a live synchronization interface in 2028. However, neither Singapore nor Thailand has announced a similar pledge under the project.

The technical report covered the failure to pay, lack of funds and temporary system failures in controlled circumstances. The researchers discovered that coordinated settlement survived all the failure scenarios tested.

The trials weren’t comprehensive enough to explore the effects of long outages, varying hours of operation or actual commercial transactions.

The announcement follows Hong Kong’s launch of 24-hour tokenized deposit settlement. This service was launched by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority under Project Ensemble, which included 12 banks and 20 industry participants. 

Regulators Examine FX Settlement Rules Amid $1.2 Trillion in Exposure

Global Foreign Exchange Committee’s latest survey showed a foreign exchange settlement obligation of $14.4 trillion on average.  The report, published in September, featured 49 financial institutions and was 8% higher than it was in October 2025. 

Of that total, payment-versus-payment (PvP) transactions accounted for $4.8 trillion in settlements. However, market participants settled $1.2 trillion, or 8%, without taking steps to reduce foreign exchange settlement risk. Of these unprotected trades, 84% could not qualify for PvP settlement.

In this context, Project Meridian FX APAC explored the legal and regulatory considerations for synchronized settlement. The Reserve Bank of Australia and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas were observers at the discussions.

Furthermore, Bank of England executive Tom Mutton said synchronisation in cross-border foreign exchange (FX) transactions could help reduce risks and improve efficiency.

The project policy report identified detailed analysis for the settlement finality, operator oversight and cross-border accountability areas. It noted that technically, a coordinated process is not enough to set up legally binding settlements between different national payment systems.