The BIS and 28 global banks moved $1M in 30 tokenized transactions with 80-second settlement, cutting the 24-72 hour window of traditional correspondent banking. Next testing phase runs through Q4 2026.
The Bank for International Settlements and 28 global banks wrapped up a live pilot of tokenized-money cross-border payments Thursday. The test moved roughly $1 million across 30 settled transactions, with the average trade clearing in 80 seconds. That compares with the 24 to 72 hours traditional correspondent banking requires.
JPMorgan, Citi, UBS, and Lloyds Banking Group were among the firms that sent payments in six currencies, including the Swiss franc and the U.S. dollar. The infrastructure did not use public cryptocurrencies or third-party stablecoins. Instead, the platform ran on programmable digital representations of central bank reserves and commercial deposits issued by the participating banks themselves.
The BIS report said the system executed atomic settlements, where the asset exchange and payment happen simultaneously or the whole transaction cancels. That design cuts the counterparty risk that builds up during the settlement windows between different time zones, the project evaluation noted.
Five central banks validated their own currencies in the trial with real funds: the Bank of England, Bank of France, Bank of Japan, Bank of Korea, and Swiss National Bank. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York took part in the earlier conceptual phase but did not process live transactions in this round.
A parallel legal analysis concluded that settlement finality is legally viable across all seven jurisdictions studied. The BIS said commercial rollout would require harmonizing contract frameworks and local data-privacy rules first.
Unlike SWIFT, which sends payment instructions without moving the underlying funds, the Project Agorá network combines the message and the liquidity transfer in one step. Integrating smart contracts could also automate compliance checks and anti-money-laundering controls, the project analysts estimated.
For the banking industry, the pilot signals a path to reducing the $110 billion in annual intermediation costs the BIS attributes to liquidity fragmentation and manual processes. If the platform scales, banks could cut the capital tied up in cross-border payment queues and lower the cost of maintaining correspondent relationships. The trial also tested the legal basis for settlement finality, a prerequisite for any commercial deployment.
The BIS said the next testing phase will run through the fourth quarter of 2026, focused on system resilience during volume spikes. Definitive technical specs are due in the first quarter of 2027.
Lloyds, one of the participating commercial banks, carries an Alpha Score of 65 out of 100 on the AlphaScala platform, reflecting a moderate risk-reward profile in the financial-services sector. JPMorgan scores 63, also moderate, and trades at $350.85, up 1.78% on the session.
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