Project Rialto: improving instant cross-border payments using central bank money settlement

Updated 13 February 2025

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has launched Project Rialto to explore how instant cross-border payments could be improved using a modular foreign exchange (FX) component combined with settlement in tokenised wholesale central bank money.

Improving cross-border payments is an explicit international policy goal and a priority of the G20. Project Rialto targets FX- and settlement-related frictions in retail cross-border payments. The project's goal is to develop a proof of concept to demonstrate the technical feasibility of retail cross-border payments using interlinked instant payment systems together with an automated FX wholesale conversion layer that allows the use of central bank money as a safe settlement asset.

Project Rialto is a collaboration of the BIS Innovation Hub Eurosystem and Singapore Centres in partnership with the Bank of France, the Bank of Italy, Bank Negara Malaysia (Central Bank of Malaysia) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore.