CaixaBank has been selected as one of the private entities that will be part of the Project Agorá global initiative of Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the Institute of International Finance (IIF) to explore new forms of international payments.
Project Agorá has involved private sector companies worldwide to assess how the application of tokens (i.e. digital representation unit of any asset on a programmable platform) can strengthen wholesale 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.
They will work in partnership with the selected financial firms, and the IIF will act as the private sector convener.
About Project Agorá
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 (e.g. against money laundering and customer verification), which today are often repeated several times for the same transaction, depending on the number of intermediaries involved.
Participating in Project Agorá, CaixaBank aims to leverage its expertise and resources to help overcome these challenges and create a more streamlined and secure payment ecosystem.
CaixaBank selected for the digital euro prototype
CaixaBank has extensive digital capabilities that have helped it become an international benchmark in financial services and innovative payment methods; it also has experience in developing international innovation projects driven by regulatory bodies and with public-private collaboration.
In 2022, the bank was selected by the European Central Bank (ECB) as part of an international call for payment service providers, banks, and other relevant companies to create payment service prototypes as part of the research phase to prepare a future launch of the digital euro.
CaixaBank was the only bank chosen to participate in this initiative and co-developed a prototype of P2P payments wallet for the digital euro with the European Central Bank.
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