TD, BNY Complete Tokenized Payment Test on Project Agorá
Project Agorá, convened by the Bank for International Settlements and the Institute of International Finance, is testing a shared programmable platform that combines tokenized central bank reserves with tokenized commercial bank deposits. The initiative targets long-standing frictions in wholesale cross-border payments, including multiple intermediaries, limited visibility and settlement delays. Its atomic-settlement design allows linked legs of a transaction to complete together or not at all, reducing settlement risk while retaining the safeguards of regulated money.
TD said on Aug. 31, 2026, that it moved real U.S. dollar funds for the first time through the Agorá platform between TD New York Branch, identified as TD Securities LLC, and TD Bank, N.A. BNY served as the clearing bank and intermediary, while the platform issued tokenized money and completed the transfer instantly with atomic settlement. The broader real-value testing involved 28 central banks and financial institutions across 17 scenarios, totaling about CHF800,000, with individual transactions ranging from CHF9,000 to CHF125,000.
All Coverage
2 original reportsThe Backstory
The history behind this eventGlobal Banks Test Tokenised Money in BIS Cross-Border Pilot
Project Agorá, launched on April 3, 2024, is a public-private initiative led by the Bank for International Settlements and the Institute of International Finance. It is testing whether tokenised central bank reserves and commercial bank deposits can share a programmable platform for wholesale cross-border payments. The approach matters because correspondent-banking chains split payment, foreign-exchange and settlement steps across institutions and time zones, increasing cost, opacity and the risk that one leg of a transaction fails.
On May 27, 2026, BIS said the prototype had demonstrated secure, all-or-nothing settlement across currencies and jurisdictions, clearing the way for real-value tests. The latest phase involved 28 banks handling about $1 million, with settlement averaging roughly 80 seconds. Lloyds Banking Group said on July 30 that it completed three live transactions spanning sterling, Swiss francs and euros. One converted Swiss francs into sterling while linking FX, payment and settlement simultaneously; Lloyds also participated in separate Swiss-franc and euro deposit-token transactions, including work with CaixaBank.
BIS’s Project Agorá Shows Tokenization Can Improve Cross-Border Payment Efficiency
Project Agorá, convened by the Bank for International Settlements and the Institute of International Finance, tested the tokenization of central bank reserves and commercial bank deposits to address the lengthy, costly and fragmented nature of traditional correspondent-banking transfers. The model preserves the security of final settlement in central bank money while enabling all-or-nothing atomic settlement across currencies, reducing the risk that one leg succeeds while the other fails.
The BIS released the findings of the two-year exploration on May 27, 2026. Seven central banks, including the Bank of England, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Bank of Japan, participated alongside more than 40 private financial institutions. The prototype demonstrated that secure atomic settlement with finality can be completed across jurisdictions. The next phase will add the Bank of Canada and move from simulations to live-value transactions for selected currencies and institutions. The currencies, amounts and launch date have not yet been disclosed.
Subscribe to Mark Radar Weekly
Every Friday, the week's strongest signals in your inbox. Unsubscribe anytime.
If you search news on Google, you can set Mark Radar as a preferred source—our coverage will show up more often in your results. Set as preferred source on Google →