Canada's Big Six banks explore tokenized deposit network

Canada's six largest banks announced Tuesday a joint project to explore Canadian dollar tokenized deposits, beginning with transfers between domestic financial institutions. Bank of Montreal, National Bank of Canada, Royal Bank of Canada, Scotiabank, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Toronto-Dominion Bank said the first phase would focus on moving tokenized deposits between Canadian financial institutions, with the goal of making payments faster, more efficient and programmable. A tokenized deposit is a digital representation of a conventional bank deposit recorded and transferred on blockchain or similar technology. The money would still be issued by commercial banks and denominated in Canadian dollars, and the deposits would remain the liability of the issuing bank rather than becoming a new cryptocurrency or a central bank digital currency. The banks said the initiative reflects a shared view that as digital money evolves globally, Canada's payments infrastructure must remain competitive and secure, while maintaining existing safeguards around financial stability and regulation.