The Bank of England (BoE), the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Bank of Thailand published on November 13 the findings of Project Meridian FX APAC, a trial that settled FX transactions across conventional RTGS systems and distributed ledger systems. The BoE plans to launch a live synchronisation interface in 2028, and the results show how such a service could be developed.
What the project tested
The project tested payment-versus-payment (PvP) FX settlement and multilateral net FX settlement across the three central banks' test environments. Partior, the delivery partner, built and integrated the Synchronisation Operator (SO) prototype.
- Synchronisation Lab (BoE) - a simulated RTGS with a funds reservation function
- Project SAN (Bank of Thailand) - a tokenised system with an interoperability layer
- SGD Testnet (MAS) - a shared ledger for SGD wholesale CBDC, used in a non-production configuration
The Reserve Bank of Australia and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas took part as observers. The project, announced in November 2025, builds on Project Meridian FX, led by the BIS Innovation Hub London with the BoE, Banque de France, Bundesbank, Bank of Italy and ECB.
How synchronisation works
According to the technical report, the SO receives settlement instructions, matches both legs of the FX trade, asks each system to earmark the funds and only then instructs settlement. Payments execute together or not at all.
On two systems, the SO reserved funds directly in participants' accounts. On SGD Testnet it used a dedicated bank-owned escrow wallet, managed under the bank's authorisation.
The trial simulated exception scenarios: insufficient funds, invalid account identifiers and central bank system outages. In each case, the prototype either completed settlement or fully unwound all legs of the transaction.
Why it matters
Per the 2025 BIS Triennial Survey cited by the BoE, more than $1.4 trillion, or 10% of average daily FX settlement in April 2025, remained fully exposed to settlement risk. PvP reduces that risk: one currency transfers only if the other does too.
Multilateral net settlement through synchronisation reduces settlement risk and delivers liquidity efficiencies for banks, MAS said.
What still needs solving
The policy report identifies four risk areas for a live service:
- Operational risk: an SO failure can block settlement even when central bank systems stay available
- Settlement finality: technical atomicity does not by itself create a legally recognised moment of finality across systems
- Governance: who can approve, pause, cancel or retry transactions, and how losses are allocated
- Data and cross-border law: applicable law, confidentiality and information sharing across jurisdictions
The report uses a non-custodial SO as its baseline, one that does not hold participants' funds. The additional functions tested - escrow on SGD Testnet and calculating net positions - could raise custodial, credit, liquidity and insolvency questions.
Tom Mutton, Executive Director of Payments, Innovation and Fintech at the BoE, said the project provides "practical evidence of how synchronised settlement could help reduce risk and improve efficiency in cross-border FX transactions". Proposed next steps: extending to more jurisdictions, industry participants, currencies and transaction scenarios.
