The Central Bank of the UAE announced the successful completion of Project Aperta, a Bank for International Settlements-led initiative to enable secure and interoperable cross-border open finance. The project created a trusted interoperability network that links the open finance networks of multiple jurisdictions, allowing real-time cross-border financial data exchange through a neutral layer without requiring changes to domestic frameworks. Developed with the BIS Innovation Hub Hong Kong Centre, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the Central Bank of Brazil and the Financial Conduct Authority of the United Kingdom, the project tested two use cases across five economies. These covered cross-border data portability for faster onboarding and fewer manual checks through secure sharing of verified business information, and trade finance lifecycle management using structured digital data from contract issuance to final settlement. The tests showed that cross-border data exchange can operate while preserving domestic rules, security requirements and supervisory oversight, and indicated scope to reduce duplication, compliance costs and onboarding times for small and medium-sized enterprises involved in international trade. Architectural blueprints, translation protocols, trust framework designs, reference code and data models have been released as open, reusable public goods.
Central Bank of the UAE2026-06-17
Central Bank of the UAE completes Project Aperta prototype for secure cross-border open finance
The Central Bank of the UAE announced the completion of Project Aperta, a Bank for International Settlements-led prototype that connects domestic open finance networks for secure cross-border data exchange. Tests across five economies covered business data portability and trade finance processes, and showed the model can work without changing domestic rules. The project’s technical and governance materials have been released as open public goods.