BIS completes Project Agorá tokenization pilot with seven central banks

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has completed a prototype test for Project Agorá, its initiative for a token-based international wholesale payment system, in collaboration with seven central banks and over 40 private financial institutions. According to a BIS report, the prototype tokenizes central bank reserves and commercial bank deposits on a shared distributed ledger (DLT). The system uses atomic settlement to eliminate credit and settlement risks, with transactions completed in seconds and allowing parties to monitor payment status in real-time. Central bank participants included the Bank of Korea, the New York Federal Reserve Bank, the Bank of England, and the Bank of Japan. South Korean commercial banks involved were KB Kookmin Bank, Shinhan Bank, and Hana Bank. On the same day, the Bank of Canada announced it has also joined the project.