Saudi Arabia exits mBridge: Can China-led platform still challenge US dollar, become global cross-border payment system?
The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) has withdrawn from mBridge, a China-led multi-central-bank digital currency (CBDC) platform, describing the exit as part of its original plan
SAMA completed its proof-of-concept participation on the platform in mid-2025 and ceased to be an active member afterward
mBridge continues to operate with its remaining full participants — the central banks/monetary authorities of China, Hong Kong, Thailand and the UAE
The platform aims to enable faster, cheaper cross-border payments using central bank digital currencies, reducing reliance on correspondent banking, the US dollar as an intermediary currency, and SWIFT messaging
Project mBridge — Multi-CBDC Cross-Border Payment Platform
mBridge is a wholesale multi-CBDC platform built on distributed ledger technology that allows participating central banks to settle cross-border transactions directly in digital currency, bypassing the layered correspondent-banking chain that underlies most international payments today. It was incubated by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub in partnership with the central banks of China (People's Bank of China's Digital Currency Institute), Hong Kong (HKMA), Thailand and the UAE, starting in 2021.
Key Details
- Reached "minimum viable product" (MVP) stage in 2024, after which the BIS formally exited the project (October 2024) and handed governance to the participating central banks
- Saudi Arabia joined as an observer in 2023 and became a full participant in 2024, before exiting in 2025
- Around 25+ other institutions, including the IMF and World Bank, hold observer status
- Distinct from a bilateral payment link (like India's UPI–PayNow with Singapore) — mBridge is multilateral, with several central banks' CBDCs interoperable on a single shared ledger
Saudi Arabia's exit reduces mBridge's full-participant base to four monetary authorities, but the platform's continued operation shows that interest in alternative, dollar-independent settlement rails persists even as individual members recalibrate their participation for regulatory or geopolitical reasons.
SWIFT and Alternative Cross-Border Payment Messaging Systems
SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) is a Belgium-based cooperative messaging network — not itself a payment or clearing system — used by over 11,000 financial institutions to instruct cross-border transactions, most of which are ultimately settled through dollar correspondent-banking chains. Because SWIFT access can be revoked (as with select Russian banks after 2022), several states have pursued parallel settlement infrastructure.
Key Details
- China's Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS), launched in 2015, is a real yuan clearing and settlement system (unlike SWIFT, which only carries messages); by 2026 it connected roughly 1,600 direct/indirect participants across 180+ countries
- CIPS still relies on SWIFT messaging for many transactions not directly linked to it — the two systems are complementary rather than strict substitutes
- India's own instant payments rail, UPI, has been linked internationally (e.g., with Singapore's PayNow, and in select Gulf and ASEAN markets) but remains a retail payments system, not a wholesale CBDC settlement platform
mBridge, CIPS and similar projects are frequently grouped under "de-dollarization" efforts, but they serve different functions — mBridge targets wholesale CBDC settlement, CIPS targets yuan clearing, and neither yet challenges the dollar's dominant share of global trade invoicing and reserves.
India's Central Bank Digital Currency (e₹) and India's BIS Engagement
The Reserve Bank of India has run its own CBDC pilots in parallel with global multi-CBDC experiments, positioning India to participate selectively in international digital-currency interoperability projects without committing to any single foreign-led platform.
Key Details
- RBI launched the wholesale digital rupee pilot (e₹-W) on 1 November 2022, initially for settlement of secondary market government securities transactions
- The retail digital rupee pilot (e₹-R) followed on 1 December 2022, within a closed user group of banks and merchants
- India has separately engaged with BIS-led interoperability initiatives (such as Project Nexus, for instant retail payment system linkages) rather than joining mBridge
- India is a founding-era participant in BRICS discussions on local-currency trade settlement but has not adopted a common BRICS currency or joined China-anchored settlement platforms
Saudi Arabia's calibrated entry-and-exit from mBridge illustrates a broader pattern among large economies, including India, of testing multiple CBDC and payment-interoperability tracks simultaneously rather than committing exclusively to a China-anchored or Western-anchored system.
- mBridge full participants (post-Saudi exit): China, Hong Kong, Thailand, UAE (central banks/monetary authorities)
- BIS exited mBridge governance: October 2024, after the project reached MVP stage
- Saudi Arabia: observer (2023) → full participant (2024) → exit (2025)
- CIPS (China's SWIFT-alternative clearing system): launched 2015; ~1,600 participants across 180+ countries by 2026
- RBI e₹-W (wholesale) pilot launched: 1 November 2022; e₹-R (retail) pilot launched: 1 December 2022
- SWIFT: cooperative messaging network (not a settlement system) used by 11,000+ institutions worldwide