Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub publishes Project FuSSE findings on modular settlement engine scalability and quantum readiness

The Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub has published a report on Project FuSSE, a proof-of-concept exploring whether a modular, microservices-based settlement engine architecture could help financial market infrastructures scale with growing payment volumes while remaining adaptable and cyber resilient, including through quantum readiness and cryptographic agility. Under controlled test conditions, the proof-of-concept processed up to 10,000 transactions per second while scaling computing resources less than proportionally as throughput increased. The report highlights how independently scalable services, including cryptographic services, could help manage bottlenecks and support the integration of post-quantum cryptography as standards mature, and how clear service boundaries may ease future changes to security, messaging and regulatory requirements. It also flags significant operational trade-offs, including increased operational complexity and a larger attack surface from microservices, and computational and bandwidth overhead from post-quantum cryptography, alongside a need for more adaptable governance, certification and incident-response frameworks. The Innovation Hub notes that Project FuSSE is experimental and does not provide production-ready components, assert Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures compliance, or define payment, governance or cost models, and the results are not intended as a benchmark or implementation reference.