The European Central Bank has launched Pontes, a bridge connecting tokenised-asset platforms to the Eurosystem’s TARGET Services for wholesale settlement in central bank money. The arrangement enables atomic delivery-versus-payment settlement, in which an asset and its payment move together. It does not yet make wholesale settlement available around the clock: Pontes depends on T2 operating hours and requires tokenised central bank money balances to be defunded at the end of the day. ECB Executive Board member Piero Cipollone says the Eurosystem plans to extend Pontes operating hours substantially by mid-2027 and reach 24/7/365 availability in 2028. Separately, the Bank for International Settlements’ Project Agorá has tested cross-border payments using a shared programmable ledger that brings tokenised commercial bank deposits and central bank reserves into a single settlement process. Both initiatives address delays and liquidity demands in wholesale payments, but neither makes continuous, cross-border settlement available today.

Project Agorá’s real-value testing settled 30 live, multi-currency transactions worth approximately CHF 800,000, with atomic settlement averaging about 80 seconds. The tests involved 28 commercial institutions and five central banks. The result shows how tokenised commercial bank deposits and central bank reserves could support faster cross-border settlement, though it does not establish that settlement latency has been eliminated. The project’s prototype found that tokenisation did not change the legal character or regulatory obligations of deposits and reserves. Its design also let participating institutions conduct compliance checks concurrently. Seven more commercial banks joined in September 2026, taking private-sector participation to nearly 50 institutions. At Sibos in October, banking executives described the testing pipeline as a step towards production trials alongside the European Central Bank’s Pontes platform. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York did not participate in the live test transactions, an important qualification for the US dollar tests.

Project Agorá settled approximately CHF 800,000 in live, multi-currency transactions during a July 2026 testing phase. The work examined a cross-border payment model that places tokenised commercial bank deposits on a shared ledger while holding tokenised central bank reserves on jurisdictional ledgers. Five central banks participated directly in live-reserve settlement, although the project’s wider central-bank group has since expanded to eight with the Bank of Canada’s entry. The project reports an average settlement time of 80 seconds across six currencies and uses smart contracts to run anti-money laundering, sanctions and fraud checks simultaneously. Legal analyses found that tokenisation did not change the underlying character of deposits or reserves in participating jurisdictions. The findings support further work on deposit-based wholesale settlement, but the supplied research does not establish that the approach outperforms stablecoins. The Eurosystem plans to draw on Agorá’s architecture for Projects Pontes and Appia.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore has issued tokenised MAS Bills in live trials on its Singapore Dollar Test Network, settling them with wholesale central bank digital currency. An initial S$1 million one-week tranche was followed by a S$10 million tranche scheduled to mature on October 23, 2026. MAS says placing tokenised securities and central bank money on common infrastructure supports monetary stability and settlement finality. Separately, the Bank for International Settlements and the Institute of International Finance completed real-value testing for Project Agorá. Twenty-eight financial institutions and five central banks executed 30 transactions worth CHF 800,000 across six currencies, averaging 80 seconds per settlement. The initiatives illustrate why central banks favour wholesale CBDCs and tokenised bank deposits for institutional transactions: they aim to preserve settlement in central bank money and the existing banking system. Stablecoins remain a competing model, with industry participants citing their liquidity and round-the-clock availability.

Project Agorá completed real-value testing in July 2026, settling about CHF 800,000, or roughly $1 million, across 17 transaction scenarios. The trials averaged approximately 80 seconds for settlement across six currencies without direct integration into core real-time gross settlement systems. A May report from the Bank for International Settlements and the Institute of International Finance confirmed the technical feasibility of atomic settlement and legal finality across participating jurisdictions. The initiative combines tokenized central bank reserves on jurisdictional ledgers with tokenized commercial bank deposits on a shared ledger. It is intended to modernize, not eliminate, correspondent banking and the two-tier monetary framework. More than 40 private institutions participate in the wider project, while a subgroup of 28 financial institutions and central banks conducted the real-value tests. The Bank of Canada has also joined the central bank consortium, alongside the original seven participants.

Project Agorá completed a controlled real-value testing phase in late July 2026, processing approximately 800,000 Swiss francs across 30 live transactions in six currencies. The project records tokenised commercial bank deposits and central bank reserves on a shared programmable ledger, with an average initiation-to-settlement time of about 80 seconds. The Bank of Canada has joined as its eighth participating central bank, while commercial financial institutions are taking on deeper operational testing responsibilities. Convened by the Bank for International Settlements and the Institute of International Finance, Agorá is examining a model for cross-border payments that preserves the roles of commercial and central bank money. BIS General Manager Pablo Hernández de Cos argued in August that stablecoins lack the institutional credibility and singleness of money needed for systemic settlement. The tests demonstrate live transactions, but conflicting participant counts and uncertainty about the US dollar settlement leg limit broader conclusions about the project’s results.