Australia: Finalised "Project Dunbar" including Prototype for Multi-CBDC Platform

On 22 March 2022, the Bank for International Settlements and the central banks of Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, and South Africa announced the completion of two prototypes for a platform that enables international settlements using multiple central bank digital currencies (multi-CBDC). The prototypes are the result of Project Dunbar, which explored challenges of implementing a platform shared across central banks and proposed design approaches to address them. The goal of such a platform is to facilitate cross-border electronic transactions via currencies issued by multiple central banks. Such a platform could reduce costs and intermediaries, but also bring security risks and complicated jurisdictional issues. The project proved the technical viability of multiple central bank digital currencies and proposed two potential prototypes.