The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has partnered with some of the world’s largest banks and credit card companies on a blockchain-based initiative aimed at transforming cross-border payments.
Project Goals and Partners
The project, named Agora, includes major financial institutions such as JPMorgan Chase & Co., Deutsche Bank AG, UBS Group AG, as well as Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. The project launched in May and has attracted 41 private-sector companies alongside seven central banks from key jurisdictions such as the US, the euro area, Japan, and the UK.
Agora Platform
Agora—Greek for “market”—seeks to develop an international platform where tokenized assets can be traded using digital currencies issued by the participating central banks. Through this unified ledger, investors would be able to conduct cross-border transactions with the security of central-bank-backed digital money.
Future of Cross-Border Payments
Agora has the potential to lay the foundation for a new regulated financial market infrastructure to facilitate cross-border payments. This project aims to improve the speed and efficiency of what central and commercial banks already do today.
Agora stands out as BIS’s largest and most complex initiative to date in terms of geographic reach and participant involvement. In addition to Agora, BIS is also supporting mBridge, a separate project involving central banks from China, Asia, and the Arab world.
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