The Bank of England and Ripple have completed a pilot project investigating the synchronous movement of two different currencies in two different simulated real-time gross settlement systems (RTGS) using the Interledger Protocol.
The RTGS system is the backbone of payments in the UK, with hundreds of billions of pounds settled every day.
BofE has been working on a replacement for several years, which should add new functionality to support the “synchronization” of cash flows in RTGS with cash and asset flows held in other systems.
As part of a technical feasibility study, the central bank’s fintech accelerator, together with Ripple, developed a PoC for a high-value cross-border payment scenario in which transactions in two different currencies are carried out simultaneously in two different simulated RTGS systems representing two different countries.
The Ripple project was based on the open-source Interledger Protocol, which enables payments to be made through various registries and networks around the world. Ripple Connect is also used as an interface that allows you to integrate the institution’s internal systems with the company’s network. This means that you can send and receive payment instructions, as well as request information about the status of payments.