Project Agorá, an initiative by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) alongside major central banks and the Institute of International Finance (IIF), is moving forward and inviting private sector involvement.
The project aims to explore how tokenisation can improve wholesale cross-border payments.
Private sector financial institutions are encouraged to apply for participation in Project Agorá and the application window is open until 31 May 2024.
Details on eligibility, terms and conditions, and selection criteria are available in the application package.
Project Agorá involves seven central banks, including the Bank of France (Eurosystem), Bank of Japan, Bank of Korea, Bank of Mexico, Swiss National Bank, Bank of England, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
The project seeks collaboration with numerous private financial firms under the IIF.
The initiative will build on the unified ledger concept proposed by BIS, aiming to integrate tokenised commercial bank deposits with tokenised wholesale central bank money.
This integration could improve the monetary system’s efficiency and enable innovative financial solutions using smart contracts and programmability.
Smart contracts could revolutionise settlement processes, allowing for transactions that are currently impractical.
This partnership aims to tackle inefficiencies in current payment systems, particularly in cross-border transactions, which face various legal, regulatory, and technical challenges, as well as different operating hours and time zones.
Enhanced financial integrity controls, such as anti-money laundering measures, are also a focus.
Featured image credit: Edited from Freepik
