Odaily News The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is discussing whether to shut down a pilot cross-border payments platform, mBridge, after Russian President Vladimir Putin cast the underlying technology as a tool to circumvent sanctions and potentially undermine the dollar’s dominance in the global financial system. The mBridge project, which promises to allow money to be sent around the world without reliance on U.S. banks, was among the topics discussed by central banks and finance ministers at the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington last week, people familiar with the matter said. Closing the project was an option, the people added. “We cannot directly support any of the BRICS projects because we cannot work with countries that are under sanctions — I want to make that very clear,” BIS President Agustin Carstens, whose term ends in June, told a Group of 30 event in the U.S. capital on Saturday. The U.S. has increasingly used the dollar’s role as the main conduit for global financial transactions to enforce international sanctions, particularly in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. That has prompted attempts to find alternatives that are free of U.S. interference, even though the dollar remains the dominant currency for international trade and there is little sign that that will change any time soon. That hasn’t stopped countries like China and Russia from trying. mBridge promises to allow remittances to be sent around the world outside the current correspondent banking system, which is heavily dependent on the US dollar and could therefore be a target of US sanctions. Instead, it establishes a direct digital connection between the central banks of participating countries. The platform was originally developed by the central banks of China (including Hong Kong), Thailand, and the UAE under the BIS Innovation Center and has recently entered the "minimum viable product" stage, meaning it is ready to be deployed in the real world. Earlier this year, the BIS invited private lenders and other monetary institutions to join and conduct actual transactions. Earlier in September, Chan Ho-lim, deputy secretary for financial services and the treasury of Hong Kong, said that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates, together with three other central banks and the BIS Innovation Hub, are working on a project called Multiple Central Bank Digital Currency (mBridge) to study the application of wholesale central bank digital currency. The project completed its pilot phase in 2022, with the participation of 20 banks from four jurisdictions. This year, the project has reached the minimum viable product (MVP) stage and will further expand the participation of the public and private sectors.