ISDA and Ant International publish report to transform cross-border FX settlements
The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) and Ant International have jointly led the development of a new industry report under the Monetary Authority of Singapore's (MAS) Project Guardian exploring the use of tokenised bank liabilities and shared ledger technology for cross-border payments and foreign exchange (FX) settlement. The report sets out design principles aimed at standardising industry practices and enhancing interoperability, accompanied by robust risk management frameworks and detailed use cases for real-time, 24/7 FX settlement. It addresses key challenges in the current system, including limited settlement windows, time zone delays, and high transaction costs that total an estimated US$120bn annually, by proposing a framework that could reduce costs by 12.5% and save businesses more than US$50bn by 2030. Contributors include BNY, HSBC, OCBC and the Global FX Division of GFMA, with ongoing efforts to expand use cases and support integration with existing banking systems to serve the digital economy.