Technology
Singapore Central Bank Sees Commercial Position for its Blockchain Payments Software
The blockchain project of the Singapore Monetary Authority (MAS) and the state investor Temasek has completed its final development phase and is now being considered as the basis for commercial payment ventures.
- Singapore's central banking authority and Temasek said Monday that with the fifth Ubin research cycle now complete, "the next leap will be to implement live commercial solutions to solve real-world challenges."
- Ubin has been running as a multi-currency payment platform and has leveraged blockchain and digital currency work at U.S. investment bank J.P. Morgan, guy.
- Starting in 2016 as a clearing and settlement initiative, Ubin's fifth phase (launched in November 2019) moved to other areas, including capital markets, supply chain finance and insurance.
- Work has shown that Ubin made complicated financial transfers more effective by reducing foreign exchange trade and cross-border payments costs, as well as using smart contracts as a safer alternative to conventional escrow accounts.
- The report says banks are now exploring whether Ubin can become a business multi-currency platform template for users to deal directly with each other.
- If successful, it could even continue to form the basis for a global payment platform for central banks, the report added.
- This was the last experimental process to see the participation of MAS, with Temasek announcing that it would help attempts to use Ubin for commercial projects.
- Ubin will continue to act as a research network for central banks and financial institutions to research the cross-border payment system for the remainder of 2020.
