According to CoinDesk, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) announced that more than 40 financial companies will join its Project Agorá to explore how tokenization can enhance wholesale cross-border payments.

BIS said the companies were selected through an open call in May and Project Agorá has now entered the design phase.

Tokenization is the digitization of real assets, and many countries are studying how to maximize the use of this emerging technology.

Project Agorá was launched in April and brings together seven monetary authorities from the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Switzerland, the United States and Europe.

The BIS said the project will examine how tokenized commercial bank deposits can be seamlessly integrated with tokenized wholesale central bank money into a public-private programmable core financial platform.

BIS noted that this major public-private partnership will work to overcome multiple structural inefficiencies in current payments, especially cross-border payments.