PANews reported on September 18 that according to Bloomberg, the Bank for International Settlements has partnered with some of the world's largest banks and credit card companies on a blockchain-based project aimed at revolutionizing global cross-border payments. JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, UBS Group, Visa Inc. and Mastercard have all joined the Agora project launched in May. The full list of private sector participants includes 41 companies, which will participate with seven central banks in regions such as the United States, the eurozone, Japan and the United Kingdom.
The Bank for International Settlements is exploring the creation of an international platform through Agora (Greek for market) where token assets can be bought and sold using digital currencies backed by participating central banks, which issue the world's most important reserve currencies. On this unified ledger, investors can use central bank money to conduct cross-border transactions with virtually no risk. Currently, the only relatively safe currency is cash, which does not exist in digital form.