Saudi Arabia has quit the China-led international digital currency program mBridge, which was introduced to skirt the influence of the US dollar and conventional platforms like Swift while allowing seamless cross-border transactions between central banks, Financial Times reported.

Saudi Arabia confirmed to the publication that it had quit the platform back in 2025 itself, and that this was a part of its original 'plan'. Riyadh's withdrawal from mBridge was not made public till now.

China, Hong Kong, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and the Bank for International Settlements were joined by Saudi Arabia in 2024 for the mBridge platform, which, besides reducing the dependency on US dollars for international trade, would also fut the time and cost of foreign exchange transactions.

Saudi Arabia is one the closest allies of the United States in the Middle East, and FT inquired if the country backed out from mBridge because of pressure from Washington, a person familiar with the matter told the publication that it would be “inaccurate to draw any wider inference”.

BIS was pressured to leave mBridge in 2024?

As per FT, the Bank for International Settlements left mBridge in 2024 due to pressure from the United States.

It reports that the then-general manager of BIS, Agustín Carstens had said that the institution “graduated out” of mBridge “not because it was a failure and not because of political considerations”.

What is the future of mBridge?

mBridge is currently being developed by the Digital Currency Research Institute of China, the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, and the Bank of Thailand. The BIS Innovation Hub's Hong Kong Centre was also involved in the project.

US President Donald Trump has on more than once occasion threatened BRICS countries with tariffs as high as 100% if they try to create a currency that replaces the US dollar when it comes to international transactions among them.

However, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was among the central banks observing mBridge during the time when it was being led by the BIS. The RBI has also been exploring cross-border payments using central bank digital currencies.

Despite opposition from the US and Saudi Arabia leaving the project, mBridge has not shown signs of slowing down. Other institutions have joined the project, like the Monetary Authority of Macao in 2026. It then activated the system for participating banks to start their transactions from 2 June. 23 cross-border transactions were completed by three Macao-based banks on the first day itself.

As per the Financial Times, the platform is inching towards broader commercial use as its jurisdiction continues to expand.

mBridge is not the only project aimed at improving cross-border transactions with CBDCs. Other international projects include Project Aurum (BIS, Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute collaborating on it), Dunbar (the BIS Innovation Hub, the Reserve Bank of Australia, Bank Negara Malaysia, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and the South African Reserve Bank) Mariana (BIS and central banks of France, Singapore, and Switzerland), Icebreaker (BIS and central banks of Israel, Norway, and Sweden).