Santander, BBVA, and CaixaBank have been selected by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) to participate in an initiative launched by the Basel-based institution to develop new cross-border payment methods using technologies similar to cryptocurrencies.
Named the Agora Project, this BIS initiative aims to “explore how tokenization can strengthen cross-border payments,” according to the organization, which is considered the central bank of central banks, based in Basel, Switzerland.
Specifically, the project will investigate in a controlled environment how commercial bank deposits can be seamlessly integrated into a financial platform alongside central bank money.
In addition to the three Spanish banking groups, the Agora Project includes a total of 40 entities from the global financial sector and the cooperation of national monetary authorities such as the central banks of France, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Switzerland, and England, as well as the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Among the criteria used by the BIS to select the participating banks, the authorities considered the entities’ activities as commercial banks or payment providers, their experience in innovation, and their significant involvement in cross-jurisdictional payments.
