The future of cross-border payments, could be transformed by central bank digital currencies.

Central bank digital currency, also known as CBDC, is the digital form of a country’s fiat currency.

While retail use cases such as digital Yuan have captured more media headlines, CBDCs can also bring profound impact to how global financial plumbing works behind the scenes.

Mainland China and Hong Kong are amongst the markets pioneering the innovation globally.

Global corporates move nearly 24 trillion US dollars across countries annually, equivalent to about a quarter of global GDP.

Yet cross-border payments remain slow, costly and opaque – as they rely on numerous intermediaries between the sending and receiving banks to complete.

CBDCs can make real-time, round-the-clock cross-border payments a real possibility.

And this can deliver significant value – up to 100 billion US dollars per year for corporates globally, based on our research.

Furthermore, new features such as smart contracts can unlock new, flexible ways of managing payments and liquidity – unlocking further benefits for the industry.

At Oliver Wyman, we’ve been discussing with central banks, commercial banks, and private firms the blueprint of a successful multiple CBDC network.

A deeper public-private partnership can turn the future into reality sooner.

My name is Michael Ho, and I’m a Partner at Oliver Wyman in Hong Kong.

Together, let’s accelerate breakthroughs.