11 Macau banks sign up for Project mBridge as city joins digital currency platform
Project mBridge is seen as part of Beijing’s push to establish alternatives to traditional, US-dollar-centric payment networks
Macau has joined a cross-border central bank digital currency settlement platform, with 11 banks in the city becoming the first participating institutions according to the region’s government.
The Monetary Authority of Macau had completed system integration with Project mBridge participants, allowing those banks to begin conducting transactions through the platform from Tuesday, authority executive director Henrietta Lau Hang-kun was quoted as saying in a government news release on Monday.
The move marks another step in the expansion of Project mBridge – a multi-country payment platform designed to enable direct settlement between central bank digital currencies – which had already brought together the central banks of mainland China, Hong Kong, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
Speaking at a seminar on central bank digital currency development and cross-border financial innovation between China and Portuguese-speaking countries, Lau said a digital version of the pataca, Macau’s currency, had entered sandbox testing and would eventually be used for e-government services, on public transport and in campuses.
Macau, which reverted from Portuguese to Chinese administration in December 1999, retains deep institutional and cultural ties with the Lusophone world, making it a natural hub for trade and financial settlements between China and Portuguese-speaking economies.