Central Bank of the UAE completes Project Aperta for secure interoperable cross-border open finance

The Central Bank of the UAE has announced the successful completion of Project Aperta, a Bank for International Settlements-led initiative designed to enable secure and interoperable cross-border open finance. The prototype created a trusted interoperability network linking domestic open finance networks across jurisdictions, with the core outcome being that cross-border financial data can be exchanged in real time without requiring countries to change their existing national 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. One covered cross-border data portability, using secure sharing of verified business information to support faster onboarding and reduce manual checks. The other covered trade finance lifecycle management, showing how structured digital data can streamline processes from contract issuance to final settlement. The tests found that cross-border data exchange can operate securely while preserving domestic rules, security requirements and supervisory oversight, and indicated scope to reduce duplication, compliance costs and onboarding times for SMEs involved in international trade. All architectural blueprints, translation protocols, trust framework designs, reference code and data models developed under Project Aperta have been released as open reusable public goods for other jurisdictions to adopt and build on.