Saudi Arabia reportedly withdraws from mBridge CBDC project

Saudi Arabia withdrew from mBridge, a China-backed cross-border digital currency project, after completing a proof of concept on May 13, 2025, the Financial Times reported, citing a statement from the Saudi Central Bank, known as SAMA. SAMA joined mBridge as a full participant in June 2024 and said it had planned to end its participation. MBridge was established in 2021 through a collaboration between the Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub and the central banks of China, Hong Kong, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates. The project aims to make cross-border payments faster and cheaper. It allows participating central banks to issue and transact in their own digital currencies on a shared ledger, including for cross-border payments and foreign exchange transactions, rather than using a single stablecoin. The project continued to develop under the BIS until October 2024, when the organization handed it over to the participating central banks after it reached the minimum viable product stage. Then-BIS General Manager Agustin Carstens said the BIS departure was not politically motivated. A 2024 report from the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission said mBridge could eventually provide an alternative cross-border settlement system for countries seeking to evade US sanctions. The Saudi Central Bank did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication. Separately, the People's Bank of China has increasingly focused on the role stablecoins could play in cross-border payments as their use expands globally. In June, People's Bank of China Research Bureau director General Wang Xin called for closer monitoring of stablecoins and central bank digital currencies in cross-border payments, along with greater international coordination. His comments came months after Chinese authorities restricted the unauthorized issuance of renminbi-pegged stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets, including by foreign entities.