It is this observation that is at the origin of the Agorá project (Greek word meaning "market"). Cross-border payments continue to be plagued by structural inefficiencies: fragmented processes, sometimes slow execution, high operational costs, and partial transparency. These constraints can have very concrete effects on companies' cash management, on the circulation of liquidity and, ultimately, on international trade.
In this context, Agorá is exploring a new approach to cross-border wholesale payments, based on so-called "tokenization" technologies and programmable mechanisms (e.g.rules integrated directly into the heart of transactions). The idea is not to replace existing systems overnight, but to test whether certain operations could be carried out in a more direct, synchronized way, and with fewer intermediaries.
The project brings together seven central banks, including the issuers of five major reserve currencies, as well as more than 40 private financial institutions, in an unprecedented collaboration between public and private actors coordinated by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the Institute of International Finance (IIF). BNP Paribas is participating in this initiative.
Testing alternative ways to circulate information and regulations
The Agorá project consists of experimenting with a new approach where information and regulations circulate in a more integrated way. For example, rather than waiting for a series of confirmations to flow across multiple systems, certain conditions can be checked upfront and execution triggered only when they are met.
One of the mechanisms tested is that of "atomic settlement": a transaction is finalized only if all its components, in particular the transfer of assets and the payment, take place at the same time. This is to avoid situations where a transaction is partially executed, with, for example, an asset delivered but a payment pending.
These experiments remain at this stage supervised and progressive. The project is explicitly exploratory: it is a question of testing functions, measuring their real interest, and identifying the conditions, in particular technical, operational and legal, necessary for a possible wider deployment.
A step-by-step approach, rooted in specific use cases
For BNP Paribas, participation in Agorá is part of an approach that has been underway for several years: to understand, test and measure what these technologies really change.
The Group has already conducted several experiments around the tokenization of financial securities and fund units, or associated settlement solutions. This work makes it possible to observe very concretely what is evolving: for example, the possibility of grouping together in the same environment steps that are currently spread over several systems, or of reducing certain delays by bringing together the issuance, management and settlement of an asset.
At the same time, BNP Paribas is analysing the role that digital settlement instruments, whether tokenized central bank currencies or other regulated solutions, could play in facilitating exchanges between institutions, particularly in international contexts where several players need to coordinate.
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The aim is to identify situations where these approaches bring a real benefit, particularly in terms of time, reliability and simplicity of execution. In this context, it is not a question of considering that a new model would replace the existing one in the short term.
We have been working on these topics for several years through very concrete cases. Agorá allows us to go further, by testing these mechanisms in a collective framework, with central banks and other international players. The interest is to see, in very concrete terms, what works, what needs to be adapted, and how these innovative approaches bring a real operational gain that transforms the payment experience for our customers."
Perspectives, but also open questions
While initial work indicates that some functions are technically feasible, such as synchronized settlement between several currencies, several questions remain open. Integration with existing infrastructures, the alignment of regulatory frameworks between jurisdictions, or the management of data and its confidentiality are all subjects that will condition the next steps. This is precisely the point of an initiative like Agorá: to provide a framework for the actors concerned to test these questions collectively, before any generalization.