TLDR
- Canada’s six largest banks are jointly exploring a Canadian-dollar tokenized deposit system.
- The first phase will focus on moving tokenized deposits between participating financial institutions.
- The longer-term goal is to connect the system with other digital asset initiatives and potentially additional banks.
- Tokenized deposits represent money already held at regulated banks, unlike stablecoins issued by separate crypto companies.
- The project follows recent regulatory clarification that tokenized deposits are not legally distinct from traditional bank deposits.
Canada’s six largest banks are exploring a shared tokenized deposit system designed to make interbank payments faster and more programmable. The project brings together Bank of Montreal, CIBC, National Bank of Canada, Royal Bank of Canada, Scotiabank and TD Bank Group.
JUST IN: 🇨🇦 Canada's six biggest banks launch joint tokenized deposits project to enable 24/7 blockchain-based payments.
• Bank of Montreal
• Royal Bank of Canada
• Toronto-Dominion Bank
• The Bank of Nova Scotia
• National Bank of Canada
• Canadian Imperial Bank of…— Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) September 23, 2026
The initiative will initially focus on moving digital representations of Canadian-dollar bank deposits between participating financial institutions. The banks said the longer-term aim is to connect the system with other emerging digital asset initiatives.
Canada’s Big Six Banks Test Tokenized Deposits
Tokenized deposits represent money already held inside a regulated bank rather than creating a separate digital currency. Each token remains a liability of the bank that issued the underlying deposit.
That makes the structure different from stablecoins such as USDC or USDT, which are issued by separate companies and backed by reserves. A bank-based system could allow deposits to move around the clock while remaining inside the existing regulated banking framework.
The banks say the project could support faster payments, greater efficiency and programmable transactions. Other Canadian deposit-taking institutions may also be able to join the network at a later stage.
The initiative does not yet mean the six banks have committed to issuing tokenized deposits commercially. For now, they are exploring a common model and testing how deposits could move between institutions.
Canada Clarifies Rules for Tokenized Bank Money
The project comes shortly after Canada’s banking regulator provided more clarity around tokenized deposits. The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions said on September 10 that tokenized deposits are not legally different from traditional deposits.
OSFI said the technology used to represent a financial product does not change its underlying legal nature. That clarification gives regulated banks a clearer framework for experimenting with blockchain-based deposits.
Canada has also been testing tokenized financial markets through other projects. In March, the Bank of Canada, RBC and TD completed Project Samara, which tested issuing, trading and settling a C$100 million bond using distributed-ledger technology and tokenized wholesale Canadian dollars.
The latest Big Six initiative moves that work toward everyday interbank money movement. It also places Canada alongside banks in the U.S. and other regions that are testing tokenized deposits for institutional payments.
Banks Compete With Stablecoins in Digital Payments
Large banks globally are increasingly experimenting with tokenized deposits as an alternative to privately issued stablecoins. JPMorgan, Citi and Wells Fargo have all pursued institutional digital-money projects, while Swift has also tested tokenized deposits for round-the-clock cross-border payments.
Tokenized bank deposits could offer banks many of the same benefits associated with blockchain settlement, including programmability and 24/7 availability. At the same time, customers’ funds would remain within regulated banking institutions.
Canada is developing a separate framework for fiat-backed stablecoins as well. The country’s Stablecoin Act is expected to introduce federal requirements covering reserves, registration and redemption for qualifying non-bank issuers.
Banks and credit unions already governed by prudential regulation fall outside that framework. That creates two possible models for digital Canadian dollars, one built around regulated bank deposits and another around privately issued stablecoins.
The Big Six project is still in an exploratory stage, but it gives most of Canada’s banking sector a shared starting point for testing digital money. Its first challenge will be showing that tokenized deposits can move efficiently between banks before the system expands into broader digital asset markets.
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