Singapore & JPMorgan to Rollout Blockchain-powered Payments Platform

Singapore’s central bank says its prototype blockchain-powered cross-border payments network is now ready for commercial rollout.

As previously reported, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) began “industry testing” for its new solution with JPMorgan and the state-operated Singaporean holding company and investor Temasek late last year.

And it seems the pilots have proven successful. Per Reuters, MAS now says it is “ready” to commercialize the “multi-currency payments network.”

The media outlet quotes MAS and Temasek as stating,

“An international settlement network, modeled after [the new] payments network prototype, could enable faster and cheaper transactions than conventional cross-border payments channels.”

The organizations appear keen to speed up adoption for their new platform by making “some of the technical specifications for the prototype network” publically available.

The MAS has previously spoken about the potential wide-ranging uses for its new solution, which could be used for faster foreign currency exchange, “cross-border payments in multiple currencies” and foreign currency-denominated securities transactions.

The MAS hopes that other central banks will also turn to blockchain-powered solutions – and help avoid state-run cross-border finance-related matters falling behind the private sector. The MAS underlined the importance of central banks “making cross-border transactions faster, cheaper and safer.”

The MAS stated, back in November,

“We hope this development will encourage other central banks to conduct similar trials. We will make the technical specifications publicly accessible to accelerate these efforts.”