During a state visit to China by the Sultan of Oman, the People’s Bank of China and the Central Bank of Oman signed a bilateral currency swap agreement worth RMB 30 billion / OMR 1.5 billion ($4.5 bn) over five years, as well as a memorandum of understanding to strengthen cooperation on digital currency and digital payments.
Regarding central bank digital currency (CBDC), Oman is still at a relatively early stage in its journey. In June it tendered for an international consultancy to serve as independent assessor for its CBDC program, with a brief covering feasibility, design and governance. At this stage the MoU likely involves knowledge sharing with China as well as the potential to use the digital yuan for cross border payments. In June China launched CBETS, its Cross Border e-CNY Transfer Services program, and signed up numerous overseas banks and branches to support the initiative.
A bigger question is whether this signals a plan for Oman to join mBridge, the multi CBDC cross border payment initiative that includes the central banks of China, Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand and the UAE. Oman could join in the future, but we’d argue it is at ground zero on several fronts and wouldn’t currently reap the benefits. Near term, this is more likely about e-CNY. Given the current geopolitical climate and President Trump’s negative opinions about payment infrastructures that attempt to sidestep US reach, Oman probably wouldn’t want to publicly announce mBridge plans. Saudi quietly dropped out of mBridge in May 2025 after completing a proof of concept, although the departure only emerged publicly when the Financial Times reported it in September.
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