Author: Digital Trade Outlook

The move expands client access to cross-border RMB solutions across trade, payments and treasury flows. Standard Chartered Bank (China) Limited (“SCB China”) has signed the Cross-border e-CNY Transfer Services (CBETS) Direct Participant Agreement with e-CNY Centre International Co. Ltd, becoming one of the first foreign banks to do so. The e-CNY Centre is established and managed by the Digital Currency Institute of the People’s Bank of China, which is responsible for building and operating the cross-border and blockchain infrastructure for the digital RMB. CBETS is a digital RMB cross-border infrastructure platform that supports integration with central bank payment systems and…

NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) has partnered with ACLEDA Bank Plc. to launch UPI acceptance in Cambodia. The launch was marked at a ceremony in Phnom Penh attended by H.E. Dr. Chea Serey, Governor of the National Bank of Cambodia, and senior officials from the Reserve Bank of India. This completes Phase 1 of a cross-border QR payment link between UPI and Bakong’s KHQR, Cambodia’s national QR code. Phase 1 allows Indian travellers to pay at over 4.5 million Cambodian merchants using UPI. This phase covers incoming Indian travellers only. In the next phase, the corridor will become fully bi-directional…

De-dollarisation dominates commentary. The actual market shift is more modest: corporates and central banks are not abandoning the U.S. dollar. They are building settlement optionality around it. Geopolitical friction, sanctions exposure, and FX volatility have pushed regional trading partners to explore local currency mechanisms. The shift is neither revolutionary nor post-dollar. It is evolutionary, driven by immediate commercial pressures rather than ideological intent to displace the world’s dominant reserve currency. Beyond cost and efficiency considerations, many governments increasingly view payment infrastructure and settlement mechanisms as matters of economic security, further accelerating interest in local currency arrangements. For transaction banks and…

China is preparing to commercially launch mBridge, a blockchain-based cross-border payments platform backed by the central banks of mainland China, Hong Kong, Thailand, the UAE and Saudi Arabia. A Hong Kong-based entity will be established to oversee the platform’s operations. An exact launch date has not been disclosed, but preparations are described as advanced. Fees are expected to be set at half those of conventional international payment systems, with smaller businesses — for whom existing systems have been costly and difficult to access — among the primary intended users. mBridge uses blockchain technology to enable direct transactions between central banks…

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and Standard Chartered have signed a $100 million agreement to support infrastructure-related trade flows into emerging and frontier markets, the two institutions announced on 5 June 2026. The facility will finance the import of infrastructure equipment and capital goods into AIIB member countries, using the bank’s unfunded risk-participation and credit-guarantee instruments to mobilise private capital and extend access to longer-term trade finance. The partnership is AIIB’s first under its trade facilitation initiative. The agreement targets structural gaps in trade finance availability across markets where access remains constrained, particularly amid ongoing macroeconomic volatility and supply chain…

India’s central bank is stepping up its push to embed the digital rupee into the country’s financial infrastructure, with plans to expand its use in government welfare disbursements and test its application in cross-border settlements. The Reserve Bank of India outlined the strategy in its 2025–26 annual report, published Friday, pointing to pilot programmes already underway across several states and union territories including Gujarat, Puducherry and Chandigarh, where food subsidy payments were routed through the central bank digital currency (CBDC). “Multiple government agencies commenced pilots in various direct benefit transfer schemes leveraging the programmability feature of CBDC to ensure productive…

Mastercard has completed a live pilot of cross-currency instant payments on the Eurosystem’s TARGET Instant Payment Settlement (TIPS) platform, processing real transactions between euros and Danish kroner with atomic settlement — meaning both legs of the currency exchange were finalised simultaneously. The pilot, conducted in collaboration with Danmarks Nationalbank and Sveriges Riksbank, was led under the One Leg Out Instant Credit Transfer (OCT Inst) scheme. Mastercard Move, the company’s money movement platform, was among the first participants to process transactions using the cross-currency functionality, operating in both the entry-leg and exit-leg Payment Service Provider roles. The significance is structural. Atomic…

The arrangement gives YES BANK access to Drip Capital’s digital underwriting and trade finance platform, while Drip Capital gains distribution through the private lender’s existing MSME client base. The companies say the collaboration will simplify documentation, accelerate credit approvals and improve working capital access for exporters operating across global markets. The move comes as India’s MSME sector continues to face a structural gap in trade finance. Smaller exporters routinely struggle to secure pre-shipment finance, receivables funding and working capital lines, often because they lack the credit histories or collateral that traditional banks require. The gap is not new, but the…

BBVA has joined the newly launched OpenAI Deployment Company as a founding partner, deepening its artificial intelligence strategy as financial institutions accelerate efforts to deploy enterprise-scale AI infrastructure across core banking operations.

Corporate treasury teams are under growing pressure to manage liquidity faster, respond to market volatility in real time, and maintain visibility across increasingly fragmented banking relationships. For many large companies, the old treasury model built around spreadsheets, delayed reporting cycles, and disconnected banking portals is no longer sufficient. A new wave of AI-led treasury platforms is beginning to change that. Treasury technology providers are now embedding artificial intelligence directly into forecasting, reconciliation, liquidity planning, and payment operations. The objective is not simply automation, but creating treasury systems that can continuously analyse financial activity and support faster decision-making. This shift is…