BIS and banks build blockchain cross-border payments prototype

The Bank for International Settlements and a cohort of partners will soon start testing a new prototype for digital cross-border payments with real-value transactions.

Two years after first unveiling the so-called Project Agora along with seven central banks and more than 40 regulated institutions, the group is ready to move to a trial stage involving actual transfers of money, the Basel-based institution said in a statement on Wednesday.

"It will benefit the entire financial system," said Tim Adams, head of the Institute of International Finance, which convened the private-sector participants.

The announcement marks a new milestone for the project to modernize digital cross-border payments that could ultimately revolutionize the plumbing of the global financial system, making transactions cheaper and faster while preserving key compliance controls.

The method would harness blockchain technology to settle transfers between banks in different countries within seconds. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the European Central Bank, Bank of Japan and Bank of England, as well as JPMorgan Chase, UBS Group AG, Deutsche Bank AG, several other major banks, Mastercard and Visa are all involved.

Addressing reporters, Adams highlighted that no fixed timeline exists for the project, as "it's key to get this right" instead of rushing outcomes.

The system uses a "unified ledger" concept developed at the BIS, which envisions bringing together tokenized central bank reserves and commercial bank deposits on a shared platform.