Saudi Arabia Withdraws From China-Backed mBridge CBDC Plan—FT

Saudi Arabia’s central bank has ended its participation in mBridge, a China-backed project built to test direct cross-border payments between central banks using digital currencies, according to the Financial Times.

The Saudi central bank, SAMA, joined mBridge as a full participant in June 2024 and completed its proof of concept on May 13, 2025, the report said, citing a statement from the central bank. SAMA indicated it had planned to wind down after finishing the test phase.

Key takeaways

• Saudi Arabia’s central bank, SAMA, has withdrawn from mBridge after completing its proof of concept in May 2025.
• mBridge is designed for central banks to issue and transact in their own digital currencies on a shared ledger, rather than relying on a single stablecoin.
• The project was created in 2021 by the BIS Innovation Hub together with multiple central banks, and it later moved from BIS development to central bank control.
• mBridge has faced scrutiny from US policymakers, including concerns about whether it could be used to bypass sanctions.

What mBridge is—and why SAMA’s exit matters

mBridge was set up in 2021 through collaboration between the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub and the central banks of China, Hong Kong, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates. The project’s goal is to make cross-border payments faster and cheaper by enabling transactions directly between participating central banks.

Unlike approaches that depend on a single token or stablecoin, mBridge is structured around the idea that each participating central bank can issue and transact in its own digital currency on a shared ledger. That setup is meant to support not only cross-border transfers but also foreign exchange transactions in a controlled environment.

Saudi Arabia’s participation through a proof-of-concept phase suggests mBridge reached a stage where central banks could validate core functionality. However, withdrawals like this can also reshape expectations about how quickly a broader, multi-jurisdiction rollout could occur.

From BIS development to central bank ownership

After its launch, mBridge continued to develop under the BIS framework until October 2024, when the BIS handed the project over to the participating central banks once it reached a minimum viable product stage. In remarks at the time, then-BIS General Manager Agustín Carstens said the BIS’s departure was not politically motivated, according to the BIS coverage referenced in the report.

That handoff is important context for investors and payments stakeholders watching central bank digital currency (CBDC) projects. The governance model can influence timelines, funding priorities, and which jurisdictions decide to participate beyond technical testing.

With SAMA now stepping away after its proof of concept, the practical question becomes how remaining participants will proceed and whether they will invite additional partners—or tighten scope—to reach later phases.

US scrutiny and the political risk around CBDC rails

Even as mBridge has been presented as a technical experiment for settlement and FX, it has drawn attention from US policymakers. A 2024 report from the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission said mBridge could eventually function as an alternative cross-border settlement system for countries seeking to evade US sanctions.

This kind of scrutiny matters because cross-border payments networks—especially those connected to digital assets and state-backed currencies—are rarely evaluated only on engineering. Regulatory compatibility, compliance expectations, and geopolitical considerations can all affect whether projects gain traction in practice.

While SAMA’s withdrawal was framed by SAMA as planned after completing its proof of concept, the broader environment suggests that political risk remains a persistent variable for projects operating at the intersection of CBDCs and international settlement.

China’s parallel focus on stablecoins for cross-border payments

Saudi’s exit from mBridge comes against a backdrop in which China is increasingly studying stablecoins’ potential role in cross-border payments. Earlier this year, People’s Bank of China Research Bureau director general Wang Xin called for closer monitoring of stablecoins and central bank digital currencies used in cross-border payments, alongside greater international coordination, according to Cointelegraph’s coverage of the comments.

Those remarks landed after Chinese authorities restricted unauthorized issuance of renminbi-pegged stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets, including issuance by foreign entities. In other words, Beijing’s posture appears to balance interest in new settlement channels with a preference for tight control and oversight.

For market participants, that creates a dual-track landscape: jurisdictions are exploring different mechanisms to modernize cross-border payment rails, but the compliance and authorization requirements may differ sharply depending on whether the pathway is CBDC-centric, stablecoin-centric, or both.

Saudi Arabia’s decision to complete its mBridge trial and exit after May 2025 raises the stakes for what comes next: readers should watch whether remaining mBridge participants expand trials with new jurisdictions, how governance and compliance frameworks evolve, and whether US policy concerns continue to shape how central bank digital settlement experiments are perceived internationally.