Enhancing Cross-Border Transactions Through Project Mandala

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and its central bank partners, including the BIS Innovation Hub Singapore Centre, the Reserve Bank of Australia, the Bank of Korea, Bank Negara Malaysia, and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), have demonstrated with Project Mandala that regulatory compliance can be integrated into cross-border transaction protocols. The project, now at the proof-of-concept stage, aims to automate compliance for cross-border transactions and aligns with the G20's focus on improving cross-border payments. Participants, such as commercial banks and central banks, will operate Mandala nodes within their systems, utilizing a peer-to-peer messaging system to access relevant transaction policies. The system employs zero-knowledge proofs for private transaction compliance checks. Maha El Dimachki, head of the BIS Innovation Hub Singapore Centre, expressed optimism about the project's potential to enhance cross-border payments while maintaining privacy and regulatory integrity.