Private-sector companies join tokenization project

More than 40 private-sector companies will join a group of central banks in Project Agorá, which will explore how tokenization and a wholesale central bank digital currency could enhance cross-border payments.

Details: Released by the Institute of International Finance, the list includes payments companies such as Swift, Mastercard, and Visa as well as large banks such as JPMorgan Chase and Citi. The project will now move into the design stage.

Wholesale CBDC: A wholesale CBDC—as opposed to a retail CBDC—is intended for use only by banks and central banks.

Background: Tokenized deposits are digital representations of bank deposits with programmable capabilities. Project Agorá is a large industry experiment to test whether tokenized deposits can improve cross-border payments, with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Innovation Center announcing in April that it is among the central banks that will lead this effort.

ICBA View: ICBA has repeatedly expressed opposition to the creation of a U.S. central bank digital currency, requesting from U.S. agencies federal records on whether legislative changes are required to issue a U.S. CBDC.