BIS Shifts Strategy as Global Payment Projects Diverge

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has shifted its focus in cross-border payment innovation, moving away from the mBridge project to prioritize Project Agorá [1]. This transition marks a departure from the goal of a single, neutral global rail, as the BIS now supports a design that integrates with existing institutional banking structures [1].

Key takeaways

• The BIS exited Project mBridge in October 2024, a platform that had processed approximately $55.5 billion in transactions [1].
• Project Agorá, launched by the BIS with seven G7-aligned central banks, aims to integrate tokenized commercial bank deposits with central bank money [1].
• While mBridge was designed to disintermediate traditional correspondent banking, Agorá is built to preserve and modernize it [1].
• Global payment fragmentation is increasing as nations pursue bilateral links, such as India’s UPI and ASEAN’s regional payment connectivity, rather than relying on a single CBDC architecture [1].

Diverging paths for cross-border settlement

Project mBridge, which began as a collaboration between the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Bank of Thailand in 2019, eventually expanded to include the central banks of China, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia [1]. By late 2025, the project functioned as a renminbi-denominated wholesale settlement rail that operated outside the traditional dollar correspondent system [1]. Although BIS General Manager Agustín Carstens described the BIS exit as a "graduation," the move followed public interest from sanctioned states in using the project's architecture as a workaround for dollar-based sanctions [1].

In contrast, Project Agorá represents a different architectural approach by involving the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Bank of England, and other major central banks alongside over forty private institutions [1]. By utilizing a unified ledger to route tokenized claims through existing institutional frameworks, Agorá seeks to reinforce the role of the dollar as a routing currency [1]. Meanwhile, other financial institutions are pursuing their own blockchain integrations; for instance, Deutsche Bank has reportedly begun integrating Ripple’s distributed ledger technology to streamline cross-border payments and foreign exchange operations, aiming to reduce settlement times from days to seconds [3].

Why it matters

The shift in BIS strategy suggests that the vision of a unified, neutral global payment rail has been replaced by a fragmented landscape of competing, bloc-specific corridors [1]. Treasury teams must now navigate a complex environment featuring Agorá-style tokenized flows in G7 markets, mBridge-style rails in China-Gulf trade, and a growing patchwork of bilateral instant-payment links [1].

This fragmentation also impacts the role of established infrastructure providers. SWIFT, which was once viewed as potentially being replaced by CBDC interoperability, has been repositioned as the messaging spine for the Western tokenized stack [1]. As central banks and private institutions continue to recalibrate, regulators are also tightening oversight on other digital assets; for example, European policymakers are currently exploring stricter controls on non-euro to mitigate risks related to money laundering and financial stability [2].