BBVA joins Project Agorá to explore the tokenization of cross-border payments

Project Agorá (Greek for ‘marketplace’) is structured as a public-private collaboration. It brings together seven central banks: Bank of France (representing the Eurosystem), Bank of Japan, Bank of Korea, Bank of Mexico, Swiss National Bank, Bank of England and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, convened by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). They will work in partnership with a group of private financial firms, convened by the Institute of International Finance (IIF).

The project builds on the unified ledger concept proposed by the BIS and will investigate how tokenized commercial bank deposits can be seamlessly integrated with tokenized wholesale central bank money in a public-private programmable core financial platform. This could enhance the functioning of the monetary system and provide new solutions using smart contracts and programmability, while maintaining its two-tier structure.

This major public-private partnership will seek to overcome several structural inefficiencies in how payments happen today, especially across borders, which add a layer of challenges: different legal, regulatory and technical requirements, operating hours and time zones. Plus the increased complexity of carrying out financial integrity controls (eg against money laundering and customer verification), which today are often repeated several times for the same transaction, depending on the number of intermediaries involved.

“Public-private collaboration is absolutely essential to overcome these obstacles and streamline cross-border payments through tokenization,” explains Francisco Maroto, Global Head of Blockchain and Digital Assets at BBVA. “As pioneers exploring decentralized technology’s potential to revolutionize financial products, we are proud that BBVA is one of the institutions that will help drive Project Agorá forward.”