01:01 PM EDT, 09/16/2024 (MT Newswires) -- JPMorgan Chase ( JPM ) , Citigroup ( C ) , Mastercard (MA) and Visa (V) are among the 40 private sector financial firms to join the Bank of International Settlements and a group of central banks in a project exploring the extent to which tokenization can enhance cross-border payments, the BIS said Monday.

Project Agora is bringing together seven central banks -- the Bank of France, the Bank of Japan, the Bank of Korea, the Bank of Mexico, the Swiss National Bank, the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York -- to work with the the 40 private firms and the Institute of International Finance to explore how tokenized commercial bank deposits can be integrated with tokenized wholesale central bank money in a public-private financial platform, the BIS said.

"This could enhance the functioning of the monetary system and provide new solutions using smart contracts and programmability, while maintaining its two-tier structure," the BIS said.

Other private-sector participants include HSBC ( HSBC ) , UBS (UBS), TD Bank (TD), Deutsche Bank ( DB ) , Santander Bank (SAN), Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria ( BBVA ) and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group ( MUFG ) .

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