Explore the digital frontier of finance
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has unveiled its ambitious agenda for 2024, focusing on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), blockchain-based tokenization, cybersecurity, and green finance development. This move highlights BIS’ commitment to driving innovation in the global financial environment.
Project Promisa: Pioneering Tokenized Promissory Note
A highlight of the BIS 2024 program is Project Promissa, a joint effort involving BIS, the Swiss National Bank and the World Bank. This project aims to develop a proof of concept for a platform dedicated to digital tokenized promissory notes. Traditional promissory notes, an important part of the financial system, remain largely paper-based, and Project Promissa seeks to modernize this key financial instrument. Project completion is targeted for early 2025.
Improved privacy of CBDC transactions
BIS will also work with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) to move forward with the next phase of Project Aurum. This phase focuses on enhancing the privacy of retail payments using CBDC. Building on the HKMA’s achievements in developing a wholesale interbank system and a retail CBDC prototype in 2022, the project continues to explore the potential and challenges of digital currencies in mainstream finance.
Additional projects and ongoing innovation
BIS’ 2024 roadmap includes four new initiatives: Project Leap, Project Symbiosis, Project Hertha, and Project NGFS Data Directory 2.0. Although it is not directly related to digital assets, it contributes to broader financial innovation. Ongoing projects such as Project Mandala, Pyxtrail, and Cambridge, which are focused on areas such as automated compliance, stablecoin monitoring, and cross-border CBDC payments, will also continue.
BIS’ position on CBDC and stablecoins
Throughout 2023, BIS emerged as an active supporter of CBDCs and a critic of stablecoins. In a notable statement in November 2023, BIS General Manager Agustín Carstens emphasized that central banks must lead digital transformation and positioned CBDCs as a pivotal element of this new era of financial technology.