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Efforts to modernise cross-border payments have accelerated significantly following the publication of new findings from Project Agorá, a major international initiative led by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the Institute of International Finance (IIF).
Project Agorá
The project has demonstrated that tokenisation could materially improve the speed, transparency and efficiency of wholesale international payments without compromising financial stability or regulatory oversight.
Cross-border payments have long been criticised for their reliance on fragmented correspondent banking networks, which can introduce delays, increase costs and limit transparency. Project Agorá was established to examine whether tokenised forms of money and programmable financial infrastructure could address these longstanding structural weaknesses.
The initiative brought together an extensive coalition of central banks and more than 40 private-sector financial institutions. Participants included the Bank of England, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Bank of Japan, the Swiss National Bank and the Bank of France, acting on behalf of the Eurosystem.
Atomic Settlement Moves Closer to Reality
One of the project’s most significant achievements was the successful execution of atomic settlement across multiple currencies and jurisdictions. Atomic settlement ensures that transactions are completed simultaneously on an “all-or-nothing” basis, reducing settlement risk and eliminating the possibility of one party fulfilling its obligations while the counterparty fails.
The prototype architecture utilised tokenised central bank reserves alongside tokenised commercial bank deposits, allowing trusted forms of money to operate within a programmable environment. Importantly, the project found that this could be achieved while preserving the legal status and obligations attached to traditional reserves and deposits.
The report also concluded that settlement finality can be maintained across participating jurisdictions, an important consideration given the legal complexity of international payments infrastructure.
Europe Positions Tokenisation as a Strategic Priority
The Eurosystem is already linking insights from Project Agorá to broader strategic initiatives designed to strengthen Europe’s financial infrastructure and digital sovereignty.
Two programmes in particular — Appia and Pontes — are expected to shape the next phase of Europe’s tokenised financial ecosystem. Pontes aims to connect distributed ledger technology (DLT) platforms with TARGET Services ahead of a planned launch in September 2026, while Appia will establish a longer-term framework for tokenised financial markets across Europe.
The Bank of Canada has also joined the next phase of the project, which will increasingly focus on real-world testing and the operational role of private-sector participants.
While substantial technical, legal and governance challenges remain, Project Agorá represents one of the clearest indications yet that tokenisation is evolving beyond experimentation and into the practical future of wholesale cross-border finance.
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