The Bank for International Settlements, along with the central banks of Australia, Korea, Malaysis and Singapore, is exploring the possibility of embedding regulatory requirements into cross-border transactions.
Disparate policy and regulatory frameworks between different jurisdictions are among the chief obstacles to smooth and efficient cross-border payments. They contribute to the regulatory compliance burden across the payment chain, increase the time for cross-border transactions and introduce uncertainties among stakeholders.
Dubbed Project Mandala, the Proof-of-Concept seeks to ease the policy and regulatory compliance burden by automating compliance procedures, providing real-time transaction monitoring and increasing transparency and visibility around country-specific policies.
In doing so, it aims to address key challenges identified during Project Dunbar, another BIS-led initiative which developed an experimental multiple central bank digital currency (mCBDC) platform.
The envisioned compliance-by-design architecture could enable a more efficient cross-border transfer of any digital assets including CBDCs and tokenised deposits, says the BIS. It could also serve as the foundational compliance layer for legacy and nascent wholesale or retail payment systems.
The measures under investigation include quantifiable and configurable foreign exchange rules, as well as anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) measures.