New York Fed and MAS partner to study CBDCs

The FRB of New York and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) launched the Cedar Phase II x Ubin+ project. It aims to study the interoperability of wholesale CBDCs in cross-border transactions.

The initiative aims to assess the reduction of settlement-related risks.

“The project envisions that any wholesale CBDC will be interoperable across networks while preserving its independence”, said Leong Siong Chong, Deputy Managing Director of MAS.

On 4 November, as part of Cedar Phase I, spot operations were conducted across different currencies on different ledgers via a permissioned blockchain using the Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO) model.

Cedar complements the work of the Boston Fed and the MIT on creating a retail CBDC in the Hamilton project.

Ubin+ is MAS’s international initiative to increase efficiency and reduce risks in cross-border cross-currency settlements by expanding cross-border connectivity and the functional interoperability of CBDCs.

In September, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said there no decision yet on launching a digital dollar.

Earlier, during Senate hearings, the Fed chief said he was developing a strategy for CBDC deployment.

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