Saudi Arabia exits China-backed mBridge CBDC project: FT
Saudi Arabia’s central bank, SAMA, has exited mBridge, a China-backed cross-border digital currency platform. SAMA joined as a full participant in June 2024 and ended its involvement after completing a proof of concept on May 13, 2025, saying it had planned to withdraw. mBridge was created in 2021 by the BIS Innovation Hub and the central banks of China, Hong Kong, Thailand, and the UAE to speed up and reduce the cost of cross-border payments. The system lets central banks issue and exchange their own digital currencies on a shared ledger for payments and FX transactions. The BIS handed the project to participating central banks in October 2024 after it reached minimum viable product stage. The project has faced US scrutiny over possible sanctions evasion risks, while China’s central bank has been paying closer attention to stablecoins and CBDCs in cross-border payments.
