PANews reported on October 29 that according to Bloomberg, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is discussing whether to close the pilot cross-border payment platform mBridge (Multilateral Central Bank Digital Currency Bridge Project) after Russian President Vladimir Putin viewed this underlying technology as a tool to circumvent sanctions and potentially undermine the dollar’s dominance in the global financial system.

The mBridge project, which promises to allow money to be sent around the world without relying on U.S. banks, was among the topics discussed by central banks and finance ministers at the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington last week, people familiar with the matter said; shutting down the project is one of the options on the agenda.

“We cannot directly support any BRICS project because we cannot work with countries that are under sanctions – I want to make that very clear,” BIS President Agustin Carstens, whose term ends in June, told a Group of 30 event in the U.S. capital on Saturday.