Global – October 15, 2026 -- Tokenized deposits cannot settle between banks on their own, because Bank A's tokenized deposit is not automatically Bank B's money, according to a new analysis of digital money infrastructure. The receiving institution needs settlement before it can safely credit its customer.
Tokenized deposits digitize one bank's ledger but leave interbank settlement unsolved
Tokenized deposits make commercial bank money programmable while preserving the deposit model. Beyond the issuing bank, however, they need a neutral settlement asset. Across banks, that asset is central bank money, which in a tokenized system could mean tokenized reserves or wholesale CBDCs.
The proposed layered model pairs a tokenized deposit for the customer-money leg with central bank money for the settlement leg. Debit, settlement and credit must complete together.
BIS Innovation Hub's Project Agorá tests commercial and central bank money on shared infrastructure
Project Agorá explores combining tokenized commercial bank deposits with tokenized wholesale central bank money on shared programmable infrastructure. The key issue is coordination between the two forms of money, not tokenization itself.
Synchronization, not minting and burning, carries the operational risk
If one leg completes while another fails, a bank can face an operational, liquidity or legal problem. Movements must also reconcile with bank books, pass required controls and achieve legal finality.
Trust shifts rather than disappears: banks control bank money, central banks control settlement money, and a governed platform coordinates the transaction.
Digital money programs quickly become enterprise banking issues
Digital money affects funding, liquidity, settlement, risk, controls and customer experience. The analysis lists six partner capabilities banks should look for: strategy and readiness, target operating model, architecture and integration, risk and controls, data and reporting, and managed services.
The proposed roadmap lets banks build capabilities in stages instead of resolving the full future-of-money architecture in one program.