BIS Confirms Project Agorá Tokenizes Central Bank Reserves for Atomic Cross-Border Settlement

The Bank for International Settlements said on May 27 that Project Agorá confirmed tokenizing central bank reserves alongside commercial bank deposits can enable atomic, round-the-clock multi-currency settlement for wholesale cross-border payments.

“BIS project finds tokenization could make cross-border payments faster, safer Project Agorá, backed by major central banks, will now move toward "real-value" testing to settle tokenized central bank money and bank deposits on blockchain rails”

@coindesk

The prototype described by Crypto Briefing runs on a unified ledger that bundles messaging, reconciliation, compliance checks, and final settlement into a single seamless operation.

@coindesk

PYMNTS said BIS announced Thursday (May 27) that the prototype demonstrated tokenized commercial bank deposits combined with “the trust and safety” of tokenized central bank reserves using a shared platform.

BIS said the project would transition from simulations to real-value transactions with selected currencies and market participants, and the Bank of Canada joined the initiative during the same period.

PYMNTS quoted the BIS announcement saying, “By leveraging smart contracts, the platform allows financial institutions to embed workflow logic, compliance requirements and conditional payment triggers directly into transactions,” tying programmability to reduced reconciliation burdens and operational frictions.

CoinDesk described Project Agorá as concluding that tokenized central bank reserves and commercial bank deposits could support atomic settlement across currencies and jurisdictions on an “all-or-nothing” basis.

Bank of Canada

CoinDesk said participants now plan to move beyond simulations toward testing real-value transactions involving some currencies and institutions, while also noting that the Bank of Canada joined the initiative this week.

The Bank of Canada said the Agorá prototype combines tokenized commercial bank deposits and wholesale central bank money on a programmable platform, with the aim of improving speed, efficiency, transparency and accessibility of international payments.

Ledger Insights said the prototype report for Project Agorá brought together seven central banks and more than 40 financial institutions including JPMorgan, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Swift, Mastercard and UBS, with the Bank of Canada joining and additional financial institutions expected to follow.

“Agorá has demonstrated the potential of blockchain and programmable technologies to improve the efficiency of international corporate payments while preserving the safety and integrity of the transactions”

BBVA

Ledger Insights also said the project targets four longstanding pain points in wholesale cross border payments—speed, efficiency, transparency, and risk reduction—through atomic settlement that ensures all balance updates occur or none do.

The Bank of Canada said Project Agorá will continue to test 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.

In parallel, the BIS-linked reporting warned that stablecoins could pose risks to the financial system, urging faster progress on stablecoin regulation, even as Project Agorá research focuses on tokenized central bank money rather than private tokens.