A new report by researchers from the New York Federal Reserve and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has found that Central bank digital currency (CBDC) systems operating on different types of networks can be used for cross-border and cross-currency payments. The report focused on studying technical issues related to interoperability and atomic settlement, and found that the respective teams were able to conduct cross-border transactions across different distributed ledger (DLT) and hashed timelock contract (HTLC) technology stacks, with near real-time settlement finality. The researchers used simulated CBDCs and hypothetical payments to test their interoperability hypotheses, and found that interoperability could be established across ledgers with different technical designs. The report highlights key opportunities for central bank innovation to play an important role in easing wholesale payment flows globally and improving settlement outcomes.