Project Agorá prototype enhances cross-border payments with DLT
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the Institute of International Finance (IIF) led Project Agorá, a public-private collaboration exploring tokenisation and programmability to enhance wholesale cross-border payments. A prototype was developed over two years to address inefficiencies in global transactions.
DLT platform's core features
Project Agorá successfully demonstrated that a shared distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform can support safe settlement in a tokenised environment, addressing long-standing challenges in wholesale cross-border payments.
The prototype, developed iteratively and user-tested, is based on a unified ledger concept, bringing together tokenised central bank reserves and commercial bank deposits.
Key features include atomic settlement, which eliminates settlement risk across seven participating jurisdictions.
A two-layer architecture comprises a unifying ledger for commercial bank deposits and independent jurisdictional ledgers for central bank reserves, supporting jurisdictional autonomy and regulatory control.
The platform also incorporates robust privacy controls at token and transactional levels, alongside financial crime controls (AML/CFT/anti-fraud/sanctions screening) implemented by each institution.
It integrates global payment data standards like ISO 20022 CBPR+.
Solving payment frictions
Wholesale cross-border payments currently suffer from structural inefficiencies, making them slow, costly, and opaque.
Complex, sequential processes and fragmented networks delay transactions, increase costs, and silo liquidity, complicating cash and treasury management.
These frictions hinder global trade and financial activity, constraining innovation.
Project Agorá tested the hypothesis that a multi-currency settlement mechanism leveraging tokenisation and programmability could mitigate these issues, making payments safer, faster, and more transparent.
This unique public-private collaboration brought together seven central banks and over 40 regulated financial institutions, preserving correspondent banking as the global payments backbone while enhancing its performance with new technology.
DLT's practical application
Project Agorá offers a tangible blueprint for leveraging DLT to enhance wholesale cross-border payments.
Its successful prototype demonstrates the practical applicability of tokenised central bank reserves and commercial bank deposits within existing correspondent banking frameworks.
This public-private collaboration sets a crucial precedent for future global payment infrastructure, moving from theory to tangible solutions.