March 24 (Reuters) - Bank of Montreal ( NRGD ) said on Tuesday it plans to roll out tokenized cash capabilities in collaboration with CME Group ( CME ) and Google Cloud, as it seeks to meet rising demand for real-time payments amid a global shift toward around-the-clock trading.

Tokenized cash enables near-instant settlement, reducing delays, freeing up capital faster, and supporting more efficient, continuous financial market activity.

The initiative will allow the bank's clients to convert U.S. dollars into a tokenized instrument for use in margined products, derivatives where traders put up collateral to cover potential losses, at the CME Group ( CME ) exchange.

BMO said the move is aimed at supporting clients that increasingly require round-the-clock infrastructure to meet margin calls and manage trading and settlement activity as global markets shift toward 24/7 operations.

"As the global ecosystem for stablecoins and tokenized deposits continues to expand rapidly, this capability marks significant progress of BMO's ambition to bring regulated money movement into a modern, programmable environment," said Derek Vernon, head of BMO's North American Treasury and Payment Solutions.

"Clients will be able to move funds continuously when markets demand it, not when banking hours allow it - reducing funding gaps and operational friction."

BMO's tokenized cash, as an institutional settlement instrument for regulated financial firms operating in capital markets and commercial banking, is expected to be launched in the second half of 2026, subject to regulatory approval.

The lender, which is also launching tokenized deposits, said the capability will allow clients to use the money in the bank in digital form for payments, treasury movements and programmable cash applications.

(Reporting by Nivedita Balu in Toronto and Prakhar Srivastava in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)