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Blockchains could add value in payments when they help institutions coordinate money, asset transfers and transaction rules on a shared platform—not simply because a blockchain is involved. The clearest current example is wholesale cross-border settlement: Project Agorá demonstrated that tokenised commercial-bank deposits and central-bank reserves could support atomic settlement across currencies in an experimental prototype. That is evidence of technical feasibility, not proof that live international payments are now faster or cheaper for consumers.
Why cross-border payments are a harder problem than sending a payment message
A domestic payment usually takes place within a country’s established financial and legal arrangements. A cross-border payment may involve several banks, payment systems and jurisdictions, each with its own processes for messaging, compliance, foreign exchange and settlement. Those steps can be sequential, and institutions may need to reconcile records held on separate systems.
The friction is therefore not just a matter of moving information more quickly. Limited interoperability and differences between countries’ rules and institutions also constrain progress. The Bank for International Settlements’ 11 March 2026 paper on cross-border payments identifies these coordination challenges; a new ledger by itself cannot resolve them.
What tokenisation changes—and what it does not
Tokenisation is the digital representation of an asset or form of money on a programmable platform. In the monetary system, that can mean representing commercial-bank deposits or central-bank reserves in a form that can be used on such a platform. It does not mean that every token is the same kind of money, or that the underlying claim and its legal protections disappear.
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The potential advantage comes from combining functions that may otherwise sit in separate systems. A shared platform could bring transaction messages, reconciliation and settlement together, while allowing rules to govern when an asset moves or a payment is released. For example, in a delivery-versus-payment arrangement, delivery of an asset and payment for it are linked so that one is conditional on the other. These are possible design advantages, not guaranteed savings in every transaction.
The BIS and Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures’ 21 October 2024 report describes tokenisation as a way to integrate messaging, reconciliation and settlement on programmable platforms. In June 2025, BIS Economic Adviser and Head of the Monetary and Economic Department Hyun Song Shin said that tokenised deposits and central-bank money could bring the primary means of payment and the settlement function of central-bank money together on the same programmable platform.
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How the main approaches differ
| Approach | What it represents | Potential strength | Key limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Correspondent banking | Bank-to-bank claims and payment messages routed through intermediaries. | Established institutional arrangements. | Sequential processing, reconciliation and other cross-border frictions remain; results vary by payment corridor. (BIS cross-border payments paper, 11 March 2026.) |
| Tokenised bank deposits and central-bank reserves on a shared platform | Existing forms of money represented for use on a programmable platform. | Could support atomic settlement and combine payment, compliance and workflow logic. | Needs governance, interoperability, legal clarity and operational readiness. Project Agorá remains a prototype. (BIS, 27 May 2026; BIS/CPMI, 21 October 2024.) |
| Stablecoins | Private digital tokens, often designed to track a fiat currency and used on public blockchains. | May offer crypto-market access or a cross-border or foreign-currency instrument for some users. | The BIS says stablecoins do not meet the tests of singleness, elasticity and integrity required to serve as the monetary system’s mainstay. (BIS Annual Economic Report 2025.) |
What Project Agorá demonstrated
Project Agorá is a BIS and Institute of International Finance collaboration involving seven central banks and more than 40 regulated financial institutions. Its experimental prototype brought tokenised commercial-bank deposits and tokenised central-bank reserves together on a shared platform.
In its 27 May 2026 release, the BIS said the prototype demonstrated the possibility of completing atomic cross-border wholesale transactions securely and with finality across currencies and jurisdictions. Atomic settlement means linked parts of a transaction can settle together rather than leaving one party exposed to the other leg settling later. Smart contracts could encode workflow logic, compliance requirements and conditional payment triggers. The architecture was designed to preserve central-bank autonomy over national currencies and operations while allowing privacy protections alongside compliance needs.
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The project’s participant count describes the collaboration, not a performance result. The BIS characterises its Innovation Hub projects as experimental. Its release says further technical, operational and contractual work remains; it does not establish that Agorá is a live public payment service or that real-value payments on it have produced measured consumer savings.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What would need to be in place for the value to materialise
- Interoperability: Participating platforms and institutions need to exchange and act on information and assets consistently. Broader public-sector cooperation is needed alongside private-sector innovation.
- Governance and risk management: Clear responsibility, oversight and controls are necessary for a platform that coordinates money and settlement across institutions. The BIS identifies sound governance and risk management as prerequisites for safe arrangements.
- Legal certainty: Rules must establish what a token represents and when settlement is final in each relevant jurisdiction. For Agorá, BIS legal analysis found finality achievable in the participating jurisdictions, while the project’s wider technical, operational and contractual requirements still need work.
- Operational readiness and participation: Institutions need reliable processes for compliance, business continuity and resolving exceptions, as well as enough participation for the shared workflow to be useful. A platform cannot remove friction that remains outside its scope.
Have blockchains made international payments faster or cheaper?
The evidence described here establishes potential mechanisms and experimental capability, not a general improvement in the cost or speed of live consumer cross-border payments. The sources do not provide a directly comparable, realised cost or speed saving for a live tokenised cross-border payment system. Project Agorá’s demonstration is relevant to wholesale settlement among institutions; it should not be read as evidence that an individual’s international transfer has become cheaper or faster.
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