The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) announced that over 40 financial institutions will participate in its "Project Agorá," which aims to explore how tokenization technology can be applied to cross-border payments. BIS said on Monday that these financial institutions were selected following an open call in May, and the project is now in the design phase.

"Tokenization" refers to the digitization of real-world assets, an emerging technology that is being actively explored by multiple countries and financial institutions to realize its full potential. BIS launched "Project Agorá" in April, bringing together seven monetary authorities from the UK, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Switzerland, the US, and Europe.

BIS stated on its website that the project is based on its unified ledger concept and will investigate how to seamlessly integrate tokenized commercial bank deposits with tokenized wholesale central bank money, forming a programmable core financial platform through public-private partnerships. BIS emphasized:

"This significant public-private collaboration will aim to address various structural inefficiencies in current payment systems, particularly in cross-border payments."

Furthermore, BIS hopes to overcome challenges in cross-border payments through this project, including differences in legal, regulatory, and technical requirements across countries, as well as variations in operating hours.