Project Aperta

Project Aperta is a Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub initiative led by the BIS Innovation Hub Hong Kong Centre that develops a network-of-networks architecture for connecting domestic open-finance systems across jurisdictions through APIs. The prototype report "Project Aperta: enabling cross-border interconnectivity through open finance interoperability" (BIS Paper othp111) was published on 29 May 2026. The project covers five jurisdictions — the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Brazil, Hong Kong SAR, and India — with each jurisdiction's open-finance regulator providing the domestic anchor for cross-border interoperability.

Aperta's architecture introduces a neutral interoperability layer that translates between domestic open-finance regimes, harmonising security protocols, operating procedures, and trust frameworks while preserving consumer-consented end-to-end encrypted data sharing. All architectural documentation, translation protocols, trust and identity system designs, reference code, and data models have been published as shared goods for the central banking community rather than retained as proprietary infrastructure. The initial use case is trade finance for small and medium-sized enterprises, with tests conducted in coordination with private-sector commercial banks and fintechs.

Why It Matters

Aperta functions as the cross-border data portability layer that pairs structurally with Project Agorá's wholesale settlement rail — Agorá moves the value, Aperta moves the customer and transaction data that authorises and contextualises the value movement. Although the BIS does not formally pair the two projects, the analytic complementarity is clear: a complete cross-border financial infrastructure requires both a settlement layer (Agorá) and a data layer (Aperta), and the publication of Aperta's full architecture as a public good lowers the integration cost for any commercial issuer — including Qivalis at the commercial-bank-money layer — that needs to interoperate with both.

Category: regulatory frameworks, infrastructure applications, cefi

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