The Bank for International Settlements published findings on 27 May 2026 showing that its Project Agora prototype can settle wholesale cross-border payments in seconds using tokenized central bank reserves and commercial bank deposits across multiple currencies and jurisdictions, a process that takes the existing correspondent banking system days. The public-private initiative involved the BIS, the Institute of International Finance, seven central banks, and more than 40 regulated financial institutions, with participants now agreeing to move from simulation to real-value testing. The prototype addressed a core inefficiency in correspondent banking, where fragmented intermediary chains and asynchronous processing create multi-day settlement windows and limited transaction visibility for all parties.
Project Agora brought tokenized commercial bank deposits and tokenized central bank reserves onto a single programmable platform, enabling the two forms of money to operate together. The prototype delivered atomic, multi-currency settlement, meaning a cross-border transaction chain either completes in full or not at all. The BIS confirmed this is achievable securely and with finality across all seven participating jurisdictions on an around-the-clock basis if implemented. Smart contracts sit at the center of the design, allowing institutions to embed workflow logic, compliance requirements, and conditional payment triggers directly into transactions, collapsing steps that currently happen separately into one operation. The BIS stated that tokenization does not change the legal characterization of reserves or deposits, with settlement finality holding across all seven jurisdictions.
Technical Architecture and Atomic Settlement
The prototype uses a layered architecture that allows each central bank to maintain autonomy over its national currency inside an interoperable shared platform. The BIS confirmed that atomic settlement is achievable securely across all seven jurisdictions. Smart contracts enable institutions to embed workflow logic, compliance requirements, and conditional payment triggers directly into transactions, folding steps that currently happen separately into one operation. The BIS said the prototype enhances transparency, with all parties to a transaction having access to real-time payment status while maintaining privacy from non-participating entities. This addresses a pain point in correspondent banking where senders, receivers, and intermediaries often operate without a shared view of where a payment sits.
Participating Central Banks and Institutions
The seven participating central banks were the Bank of England, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Bank of France representing the Eurosystem, the Bank of Japan, the Bank of Korea, the Bank of Mexico, and the Swiss National Bank. More than 40 regulated financial institutions participated in the project alongside the Institute of International Finance. The layered architecture allowed each central bank to keep autonomy over its national currency inside the interoperable shared platform.
Real-Value Testing Phase and Bank of Canada Participation
Project Agora will move beyond simulation to real-value transactions involving selected currencies and participants. The Bank of Canada formally joined the initiative, with further private sector participation anticipated as the next phase takes shape. The BIS said the modular design leaves room to add conditional and always-on wholesale payments and to support anti-money laundering, countering the financing of terrorism, sanctions compliance, and fraud detection as regulatory and data-sharing frameworks evolve.
