The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub has unveiled its 2024 program, featuring six new projects addressing cybersecurity, combating financial crime, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), and green finance.
One significant initiative involves the second phase of CBDC privacy testing and the launch of a blockchain-based tokenization project. Cecilia Skingsley, head of the BIS Innovation Hub, highlighted the importance of tokenization and announced the launch of Project Promissa. In collaboration with the Swiss National Bank and the World Bank, Promissa aims to create a proof-of-concept (PoC) platform for digital tokenized promissory notes. Most promissory notes, a fundamental financial instrument, are still paper-based, and the BIS aims to complete the PoC by early 2025.
Project Aurum, jointly conducted by the BIS and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), will explore the privacy of retail payments using CBDCs, entering a new research phase in 2024. The HKMA previously completed the wholesale interbank system, e-wallet, and a retail CBDC prototype for the Aurum project in 2022.
Other BIS projects for 2024, such as Project Leap, Project Symbiosis, Project Hertha, and Project NGFS Data Directory 2.0, do not directly intersect with the digital assets industry.
The BIS will continue ongoing initiatives, including Project Mandala, which aims to automate compliance procedures for cross-border payments; Project Pyxtrail, monitoring the balance sheets of asset-backed stablecoins; and Project Cambridge, experimenting with a multi-CBDC platform for cross-border payments.
The BIS has maintained a prominent role in advocating for CBDCs and expressing concerns about stablecoins. In November 2023, Agustín Carstens, BIS General Manager, urged central banks worldwide to lead digital innovation, emphasizing CBDCs as a central element of this leadership.
