CaixaBank selected by BIS and IIF for exploring new forms of international payments

Developed by the BIS and the IIF, the initiative includes private sector firms globally to assess how the application of tokens can solidify wholesale cross-border payments. Structures as a public-private partnership, the Agorá Project gathers seven central banks, including the Bank of France, which represents the Eurosystem, the Bank of Japan, the Bank of Korea, the Bank of Mexico, the Swiss National Bank, the Bank of England, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The financial institutions are set to work in collaboration with selected financial firms, while the IIF acts as the private sector convener.

Furthermore, the project develops on the unified ledger concept recommended by the BIS and is set to investigate how tokenised commercial bank deposits can be integrated with tokenised wholesale central bank money in a public-private programmable core financial platform. Through this, the monetary system could be augmented, and new solutions could be offered by leveraging smart contracts and programmability while keeping the two-tier structure. Also, the public-private partnership focuses on removing several structural complexities, notably in cross-border payments, including different legal, regulatory, and technical requirements, operating hours, and time zones.