The Bank for International Settlements’ (BIS) Project Agora has entered the design phase, recruiting 41 private financial firms. Launched in April by the BIS and seven central banks, the project examines how tokenized commercial bank deposits can be integrated with tokenized wholesale central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) on a single platform.

Visa, Mastercard, SWIFT and other major financial institutions have joined the project. The Institute of International Finance was chosen to bring together private sector participants.

Project Agora aims to address “structural inefficiencies” in the current international payments system. The BIS said the project focuses on customer verification and Anti-Money Laundering.

Project participants are also tasked with identifying legal and regulatory issues affecting tokenization and CBDC across seven jurisdictions. Project Agora is expected to publish its final report by the end of 2025.

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