Project Agorá: Groupe BPCE contributes to the success of a global experiment for the future of payments

As a partner in Project Agorá – a large-scale global experiment led by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and seven central banks, and convened with the Institute of International Finance (IIF) – Groupe BPCE has taken part in a major step forward to enhance cross-border payments. The successfully tested prototype demonstrates that tokenisation technology can make international transactions faster, cheaper, and safer. This success confirms the group’s pioneering role in payment innovations.

From concept to reality: a decisive breakthrough for international payments

Announced as an unprecedented public-private collaboration, Project Agorá aimed to explore how the tokenisation of commercial bank deposits and central bank money could solve the complexities of cross-border payments, particularly regarding the cost, speed, and transparency of the current system.

Today, the experiment has not only met its objectives but has also delivered a functional prototype that proves the concept’s viability. By bringing together seven major central banks (including the Banque de France for the Eurosystem) and more than 40 private financial institutions like Groupe BPCE, the project has shown that a shared platform can transform international payments while building on the soundness of the existing banking system.

This initiative is fully aligned with the group’s innovation strategy, which aims to build the financial infrastructures of tomorrow.

A global collaboration for concrete impact

The success of Project Agorá is built on an exceptional collective effort. As a private partner, Groupe BPCE contributed its recognized expertise in cross-border payments and its proven solutions.

Specifically, the developed prototype has validated several major technological advancements:

• Atomic settlement: This feature secures transactions by ensuring they are settled in an all-or-nothing fashion, thereby eliminating settlement risk.
• Speed and availability: Settlements can occur in seconds on a platform designed to operate 24/7, overcoming time-zone misalignments.
• Transparency and security: All parties to a transaction have real-time visibility of its status, while advanced security controls ensure data privacy.

These tangible outcomes pave the way for more efficient payments, enhancing the flow of global economic trade.

Key breakthroughs from project Agorá

The project has confirmed fundamental hypotheses for the future of cross-border payments:

Privacy of transactional and customer data.

Near-instant settlement, drastically reducing current delays.

Enhanced transparency for all parties involved in a transaction.

Elimination of settlement risk through the principle of atomic settlement.

Preservation of jurisdictional autonomy for each country, even on a shared platform.

What’s next? Toward a new generation of payments

The success of the Agorá prototype is just the first step. Participants, including both central banks and private institutions, have expressed strong interest in further exploration. Future phases could involve an enhanced role for the private sector to develop advanced functionalities, such as liquidity-saving mechanisms or coordinated anti-fraud approaches.

By actively participating in this initiative, Groupe BPCE confirms not only its technological leadership but also its commitment to building a more efficient and safer international financial system for its clients and the global economy.