AE Achieves Milestone with First Digital Dirham Payment Using Mbridge
Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chairman of the Board of the Central Bank of the UAE, has marked a historic moment by completing the first cross-border digital dirham payment using the Mbridge platform, a central bank digital currency (CBDC) interconnection tool.
The transaction involved transferring 50 million dirhams ($13.6 million) directly to China. Occurring during the fiftieth-anniversary celebration of the Central Bank of UAE, Sheikh Mansour emphasized the nation’s commitment to becoming a financial hub with the support of the central bank. The UAE, collaborating with China, Hong Kong, and Thailand in the Mbridge initiative, aims to simplify digital currency exchange between central banks and streamline payments through non-traditional channels.
Despite concerns from some nations about the initiative’s impact on unilateral sanctions, Mbridge, supported by the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), plans to serve a market exceeding $560 billion in goods exchanged among participating countries in 2021. Nations fear the initiative could elevate the digital yuan as a robust global trade currency, challenging the dominance of the U.S. dollar and traditional systems like SWIFT.
Clever Robot News Desk 5th February 2024
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