Canadian Banks Explore Digital Money with Tokenized Deposits
Canada's big banks are teaming up to explore the development of Canadian dollar-based digital money. The project involves tokenizing traditional bank deposits on a decentralized database or distributed ledger, such as a blockchain.
This initiative aims to deliver faster, more efficient, and programmable payments to Canadian customers while maintaining safety, stability, and effective regulatory oversight.
According to Claire Célérier, Canada Research Chair in household finance at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, tokenized deposits would allow for instant transactions across wallets with tokens, as long as all six banks share the same blockchain.
The participating banks, Bank of Montreal, CIBC, National Bank, Royal Bank, Scotiabank, and TD Bank, will collaborate on this project, which is still in its exploratory phase.