The Bank of Canada announced that it is joining the Bank for International Settlements’ Project Agorá, a global initiative exploring whether tokenization can improve wholesale cross-border payments. The project has already tested the feasibility of a multi-currency unified ledger that enables atomic settlement of cross-border wholesale transactions, using tokenized commercial bank deposits and wholesale central bank money on a programmable platform. The next phase will continue testing the prototype and examine how an Agorá-type platform could operate within existing legal and regulatory frameworks, including rules on settlement finality and laws designed to counter money laundering and terrorism financing. Project Agorá also includes seven other central banks and more than 40 private sector financial institutions, including systemically important banks, payment service providers and clearing houses.
Bank of Canada2026-05-27
Bank of Canada joins BIS Project Agorá to test tokenized wholesale cross-border payments
The Bank of Canada has joined the BIS’s Project Agorá, which is testing whether tokenization can improve wholesale cross-border payments via a multi-currency unified ledger enabling atomic settlement using tokenized commercial bank deposits and wholesale central bank money. The next phase will further test the prototype and assess how such a platform could operate within existing legal and regulatory frameworks, including settlement finality and AML/CFT laws, alongside seven other central banks and over 40 private sector financial institutions.