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BANK of International Settlement BIS has launched a new Project Agora as 1st step to unified digital ledger
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Blockchain for Banking • News
Seven central banks in BIS Project Agora to tokenize cross border payments
April 3, 2024by Ledger Insights
Today, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub unveiled Project Agorá, a major initiative aiming to tokenize cross border payments. This is the first project in line with its concept of a Unified Ledger. It seeks to unite seven central banks and commercial banks on a shared, programmable infrastructure to facilitate cross-border transactions.
“We believe that tokenization represents the next frontier in the digitalization of money and payments. Agorá stands out as the most ambitious project undertaken by the BIS Innovation Hub to date,” said Cecilia Skingsley, Head of the BIS Innovation Hub. Unlike other BIS Innovation Hub initiatives, which are considered exploratory, this one is on another level.
The project will encompass most of the major currencies, including the USD, Euro, GBP, and Yen. Consequently, the participating central banks are the Bank of France (for 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.
Project Agorá is envisioned as a public-private partnership. Therefore, a call for private sector participation is imminent, with the Institute of International Finance (IIF) orchestrating the collaboration.
Why cross border payments?
The G20 has thoroughly examined the factors contributing to the high costs of cross-border payments, such as the reliance on correspondent banks, compliance expenses, regulatory differences and operating hours.A press briefing highlighted the potential for compliance cost reductions on a shared infrastructure, where activities like know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) checks could be streamlined. As previously demonstrated, the burden of AML compliance is a significant, albeit necessary, expense for banks, suggesting that efficiency gains here could be impactful.
DLT still looks unlikely
While tokenization often goes hand-in-hand with blockchain, central bank involvement implies a preference for a centralized model of consensus to maintain control over payments. Despite this, smart contracts can still operate on a centralized ledger.So far the BIS has taken the position of focusing on functionality rather than technology. Hyun Song Shin, BIS Head of Research, acknowledged the scalability and interoperability challenges faced by blockchain projects, particularly those on public blockchains. He stressed the proven scalability and effectiveness of the traditional separation between central and commercial banks.
“The objective here is to perfect financial intermediation. We know that that’s scalable, we know that that works,” he said.
“This is the big leap compared to these other blockchain based innovation attempts which are clearly very interesting. But as we wrote about many times in our publications, if you’re trying to achieve settlement through decentralized consensus, that is a very difficult challenge to overcome. This is the reason why we believe this is much more promising as a way to solve real world problems rather than the previous attempts.”
Other cross border CBDC initiatives exist, but the only one nearing production is mBridge, involving the central banks of China, Thailand, Hong Kong, and the UAE. Unlike mBridge, Project Agorá includes the pivotal international currency, the dollar.
Despite the BIS’s view of Project Agorá as beyond mere research, regulatory and political considerations vary by jurisdiction. For example, the New York Innovation Center (NYIC) at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York clarified, “The NYIC’s participation in this project is strictly for research and experimentation.” CBDC is a political hot potato in the United States.
https://www.straitstimes.com/world/...ingapore-fta-says-trade-minister-gan-kim-yong
And as much as the FTA has been a pathfinder for the bilateral trade and investment relationship for the last two decades, Mr Gan said, he hoped its next phase will be as impactful.
“In the next 20 years and beyond, the next bound of economic cooperation between the US and Singapore can also serve as a pathfinder to accelerate adoption of emerging technologies like AI,” said the minister, who is on an official visit to the US.
And as much as the FTA has been a pathfinder for the bilateral trade and investment relationship for the last two decades, Mr Gan said, he hoped its next phase will be as impactful.
“In the next 20 years and beyond, the next bound of economic cooperation between the US and Singapore can also serve as a pathfinder to accelerate adoption of emerging technologies like AI,” said the minister, who is on an official visit to the US.
To date, the deal remains the US’ only FTA with an Asean country.
Apart from tripling trade from US$40 billion in 2003 to US$120 billion in 2022, the FTA has enabled the US to be Singapore’s top trading partner in services for more than 20 years, and its second-largest goods trading partner in 2023.
Singapore is the top recipient of US investment in the Indo-Pacific, and ranks the seventh-highest worldwide.
At over US$300 billion (S$409 billion), US investment in Singapore is larger than in China, Japan and South Korea combined, with almost 6,000 American companies currently in Singapore.
Apart from tripling trade from US$40 billion in 2003 to US$120 billion in 2022, the FTA has enabled the US to be Singapore’s top trading partner in services for more than 20 years, and its second-largest goods trading partner in 2023.
Singapore is the top recipient of US investment in the Indo-Pacific, and ranks the seventh-highest worldwide.
At over US$300 billion (S$409 billion), US investment in Singapore is larger than in China, Japan and South Korea combined, with almost 6,000 American companies currently in Singapore.
Recap Watson Supercomputer in 2014
https://www.straitstimes.com/busine...watson-is-dbs-newest-wealth-management-expert
https://www.straitstimes.com/busine...watson-is-dbs-newest-wealth-management-expert
2023 Watson Supercomputer new AI role
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/ibms-watson-returns-as-an-ai-development-studio-195717082.html
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/ibms-watson-returns-as-an-ai-development-studio-195717082.html
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20240404/p2g/00m/0bu/033000c
This file photo taken in January 2024 shows the Bank for International Settlements' head office in Basel, Switzerland. (Kyodo)
LONDON (Kyodo) -- The Bank for International Settlements, a group that promotes international financial cooperation, will collaborate with the Bank of Japan and six other major central banks on a trial of a new platform designed to speed up and lower the costs of digital currency transactions, they said Wednesday.
The monetary authorities aim to work with commercial banks on the project as China's move to experiment with its digital yuan has prompted them to examine the benefits and challenges of issuing central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, that could transform how people and businesses settle transactions.
The "Agora" project is aimed at facilitating cross-border, tokenized payments via the new platform.
At present, it takes days for international payments to be completed via the SWIFT global financial messaging network due to the involvement of corresponding banks that serve as intermediaries in cross-border transactions.
The seven participants are the BOJ, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Bank of England, the Swiss National Bank, the Bank of France, the Bank of Korea and the Bank of Mexico.
The BIS said the new project will not only test the technology but will do so within "specific operational, regulatory and legal conditions" of the participating currencies.
Among Japanese megabanks, Mizuho Financial Group Inc. said it will examine the details and decide on whether to participate.
While the BOJ does not have plans to issue digital yen for now, it has been conducting experiments in recent years. The Fed and the European Central Bank are also studying the feasibility of issuing digital versions of the dollar and euro, respectively.
BIS, 7 major central banks to test new digital currency platform
April 4, 2024 (Mainichi Japan)
LONDON (Kyodo) -- The Bank for International Settlements, a group that promotes international financial cooperation, will collaborate with the Bank of Japan and six other major central banks on a trial of a new platform designed to speed up and lower the costs of digital currency transactions, they said Wednesday.
The monetary authorities aim to work with commercial banks on the project as China's move to experiment with its digital yuan has prompted them to examine the benefits and challenges of issuing central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, that could transform how people and businesses settle transactions.
The "Agora" project is aimed at facilitating cross-border, tokenized payments via the new platform.
At present, it takes days for international payments to be completed via the SWIFT global financial messaging network due to the involvement of corresponding banks that serve as intermediaries in cross-border transactions.
The seven participants are the BOJ, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Bank of England, the Swiss National Bank, the Bank of France, the Bank of Korea and the Bank of Mexico.
The BIS said the new project will not only test the technology but will do so within "specific operational, regulatory and legal conditions" of the participating currencies.
Among Japanese megabanks, Mizuho Financial Group Inc. said it will examine the details and decide on whether to participate.
While the BOJ does not have plans to issue digital yen for now, it has been conducting experiments in recent years. The Fed and the European Central Bank are also studying the feasibility of issuing digital versions of the dollar and euro, respectively.
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