On November 20, 2025, the Central Bank of the UAE and the People's Bank of China executed the first cross-border payment using central bank digital currencies through a new bilateral platform called Jisr. The transaction, conducted at Qasr Al Watan in Abu Dhabi in the presence of Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan and PBoC Governor Pan Gongsheng, marks the first operational CBDC cross-border payment corridor between the Gulf and Asia.
What Jisr Is
Jisr (Arabic for "bridge") is a purpose-built CBDC payment network established with the participation of commercial banks from both the UAE and China. Unlike the multilateral mBridge platform from which the BIS withdrew in October 2024, Jisr is a bilateral arrangement between two central banks with a focused initial scope: the UAE-China trade and remittance corridor.
The platform is designed around two core objectives: instant settlement of cross-border payments and significantly reduced transaction costs compared to correspondent banking. Where a traditional AED-CNY transfer through the correspondent banking network can take 2-3 business days and carry fees of 3-5% for retail transfers, Jisr promises near-instant settlement at a fraction of the cost.
The Strategic Context
The UAE-China trade relationship provides a compelling use case. Bilateral trade exceeded billion in 2024, and the UAE hosts approximately 300,000 Chinese residents whose remittance flows have historically relied on correspondent banking or informal channels.
The launch also marks a strategic pivot for the CBUAE's digital currency programme. After the BIS exited mBridge in October 2024, handing the platform to its member central banks, the UAE has pursued a dual strategy: continuing participation in the multilateral mBridge consortium while simultaneously building bilateral CBDC corridors. Jisr represents the first fruit of the bilateral approach.
Three Initiatives, One Event
The Jisr CBDC payment was one of three cross-border payment initiatives announced at the same event:
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Jisr CBDC platform. The bilateral CBDC payment network between CBUAE and PBoC, initially focused on wholesale and high-value commercial payments between Emirati and Chinese banks.
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Instant payment system interlinking. A separate connection between the UAE's domestic Instant Payment Interface and China's Internet Banking Payment System (IBPS), enabling retail customers in both countries to send instant money transfers around the clock. This follows a pattern the UAE has already established with India's UPI through the Aani-IRP Gateway announced earlier in 2025.
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Jaywan-UnionPay prepaid card. The first multi-scheme card combining the UAE's domestic Jaywan card scheme with China's UnionPay network, enabling card payments across both countries without scheme-switching fees.
The three initiatives operate at different layers of the payment stack - wholesale CBDC settlement, retail instant payments, and card-based point-of-sale - providing comprehensive coverage of the bilateral payment corridor.
Expansion Plans
The CBUAE has indicated that the Jisr platform will expand to include additional central banks in 2026, though specific partner countries have not been announced. This expansion would transform Jisr from a bilateral corridor into a multilateral CBDC settlement network - potentially competing with or complementing the mBridge platform.
Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed characterised the initiatives as reflecting "the depth of the strategic partnership between the UAE and the People's Republic of China, opening new horizons for economic, financial and technological cooperation."
Implications for the Industry
Jisr's launch has several implications for the global CBDC landscape:
Bilateral beats multilateral for speed. While multilateral platforms like mBridge face governance and coordination challenges, bilateral CBDC corridors can be negotiated and deployed more quickly between motivated partners. The UAE-China corridor took approximately one year from agreement to first transaction.
Post-mBridge fragmentation. The BIS exit from mBridge has not slowed CBDC development - it has accelerated bilateral arrangements. The risk is a fragmented landscape of bilateral CBDC corridors rather than a unified multilateral platform.
Gulf digital currency leadership. The UAE now operates the most advanced CBDC programme in the Gulf, with the Digital Dirham for domestic government payments, Jisr for bilateral cross-border settlement, and continued participation in mBridge. Saudi Arabia's digital currency programme, by contrast, remains in the experimental phase.
For payment infrastructure practitioners, the key question is whether bilateral CBDC corridors will achieve the scale and interoperability needed to meaningfully challenge correspondent banking, or whether they will remain limited to high-priority bilateral trade corridors.
Sources: CBUAE - Mansour bin Zayed executes first direct digital payment; Economy Middle East - UAE executes first-ever cross-border digital currency payment with China; China Daily - China and UAE complete first cross-border digital currency payment.