Project Meridian FX: exploring synchronised settlement in FX

Updated 24 April 2025

Project Meridian FX was an experiment led by the BIS Innovation Hub's London and Eurosystem Centres together with the Bank of England, Bank of France, Deutsche Bundesbank, Bank of Italy and European Central Bank. It built on the original Project Meridian by focusing on foreign exchange (FX) transactions.

The starting point was the concept of the "synchronisation operator" (SO) developed in the first Meridian project. Meridian FX tested the usability of the SO for different types of assets and technologies. It also explored additional features that could form part of an SO's offering, such as those that could help reduce the liquidity needs of participants.

The project provided insights on how operators of real-time gross settlement (RTGS) systems could enable interoperability with new payments technologies, such as distributed ledger technology (DLT). It also highlighted the opportunities that the synchronisation model could unlock, including more innovative and efficient settlement services for a wider range of assets that are settled in central bank money.

By focusing on FX transactions, the project could also offer potential solutions to long-standing issues in settling FX trades, such as the costs, risks and time involved in cross-border transactions.

To achieve its objectives, Meridian FX built on the technology behind the SO, allowing it to connect two RTGS systems based in different jurisdictions. Meridian FX also connected an RTGS system with a DLT-based settlement platform, testing how the SO could support interoperability between existing and new ledger technologies. The aim in both scenarios was for the SO to successfully orchestrate the settlement of a payment versus payment (PvP) FX transaction.

Using an emulated UK RTGS system, the project connected to three experimental interoperability solutions from the Eurosystem:

Meridian FX also explored additional functionalities, including liquidity-saving mechanisms and user-defined transaction rules, such as approval limits. The findings show that synchronisation can be agnostic to both the asset or fund of the transaction involved and the technology of the ledgers, highlighting its potential use in other markets.