IMF proposes a new cross-border payment platform with a single ledger.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has introduced a new cross-border payment system that uses a single ledger to record transactions of central bank digital currency (CBDC). The new platform is programmable and has improved information management, which IMF officials revealed at a roundtable on CBDC policy on June 19. The event was held in conjunction with the central bank of Morocco and attended by IMF director of the monetary and capital markets department Tobias Adrian. He stated that the new platform could benefit individual and institutional users through lower fees and faster transaction times. Adrian also mentioned that the platform could help central banks intervene in FX markets, aggregate information on capital flows, and resolve disputes. The platform could also be adapted for domestic wholesale and retail CBDCs. The proposal, called the XC (cross-border payment and contracting) platform, is outlined in an IMF Fintech Note coauthored by Adrian and released on the same day. The platform is built on the model of CBDC infrastructure, with a settlement layer, programming layer, and information layer. The XC platform would not require the use of CBDCs and would provide interoperability among assets and money tokenized by the private sector. It would usefully instill standards and a safe environment to program financial contracts, as settlement would be carried out in central bank money.