bis Announce On Thursday (May 27) the project presented a prototype that demonstrated that tokenized commercial bank deposits could be combined with the “trust and integrity” of tokenized central bank reserves using a common platform.
The BIS added that the prototype allows for atomic and multi-currency settlement of bulk cross-border payments, which could happen around the clock if implemented.
“By leveraging smart contracts, the platform allows financial institutions to embed workflow logic, compliance requirements, and conditional payment triggers directly into transactions,” the announcement said.
“This promises to reduce reconciliation burdens, manual intervention and other operational friction – the main sources of delay, cost and payment failure in today’s world. Cross-border system. A Project Agorá-type solution could also open up new capabilities, including conditional and permanent wholesale cross-border payments.
Announced in 2024The Agora Project – Greek for “market” – is an effort convened by the Bank for International Settlements and the Bank for International Settlements. Institute of International Finance (IIF), along with seven central banks and more than 40 other regulated financial institutions.
Advertisement: Scroll to continue
Among the participants Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Bank of Japan, European Central Bank and Bank of Englandas well as private companies such as HSBC, City, Visa, MasterCard and JPMorgan Chase.
The goal is to explore how to improve coding and programmability in bulk Cross-border payments.
“The token shapes the future of global finance,” BIS Deputy Director General Andrea Maechler said earlier this year. “Atomic settlement could be a game-changer for cross-border payments in the digital age,” she added, referring to the ability of digital technology to approve payments instantaneously and simultaneously.
“It will benefit the entire financial system.” Tim AdamsThe head of the Institute of International Finance told reporters on Thursday (May 27), according to Bloomberg News a reportAdding that the organizations do not have a specific timeline for the project, because “it is important to do it right.”
As PYMNTS wrote last month, there is room for improvement when it comes to cross-border payments, a process that still means “navigating across A mixture of correspondent banksLocal clearing systems and compliance checks slow transactions, inflate costs, and introduce uncertainty at every step.
The demand for improvement is already there, as PYMNTS Intelligence data shows 14% of American consumers Make cross-border payments In the previous year, 63% of these people used digital wallets to do so.
“However, small businesses are still stuck. 1 in 3 cite the lack of an industry standard as a reason for avoiding these tools, directly citing a lack of interoperability as the primary barrier,” the report added.
