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Canada's six biggest banks team up on a shared digital-dollar network. RBC, TD, BMO, Scotiabank, CIBC and National Bank are jointly exploring a Canadian-dollar tokenized deposit system, starting with transfers between the banks themselves. Sep 23, 2026 In brief. * RBC, TD, BMO, Scotiabank, CIBC, and National Bank announced Tuesday a joint plan for shared Canadian-dollar tokenized deposit infrastructure, starting with transfers between the banks themselves. * The project is separate from the Bank of Canada's shelved digital-dollar consultation, where 85% of nearly 90,000 respondents said they would not use a hypothetical digital Canadian dollar. * Scotiabank and TD are also among 21 banks building a joint U.S. dollar stablecoin, while BMO already runs a tokenized cash platform with CME Group and Google Cloud. Canada's six biggest banks just agreed to build shared plumbing for digital money. RBC, TD, BMO, Scotiabank, CIBC and National Bank announced Tuesday they're jointly exploring a Canadian-dollar tokenized deposit system. The first phase focuses on moving deposits between the banks themselves, not into consumer wallets. A tokenized deposit is a regular bank deposit represented as a digital token on a shared ledger - same money, same bank, same rules, just using a different network. It is not a new cryptocurrency, and it is not a CBDC either. The banks want the system "competitive and secure," as they put it in their joint statement, while keeping the safeguards that already govern commercial bank money. They also want the door open for other Canadian deposit-taking institutions to eventually join. Moving money between banks in Canada today is quite slow to clear outside a basic e-transfer. A shared token system would, in theory, let banks settle those transfers instantly and around the clock, with payments that can be programmed to trigger automatically - like releasing funds the moment a shipment clears customs. Customers likely wouldn't see any of this directly. It would just run in the background, the same way nobody thinks about the wiring behind an ACH transfer today. This is a different project from Canada's actual digital-dollar debate. The Bank of Canada ran a public consultation on a possible digital Canadian dollar in 2023 that drew almost 90,000 responses. Eighty-five percent of respondents said they would not use a hypothetical digital Canadian dollar, and many placed a high value on privacy and continued access to cash. Bitcoin BTC · USD $84,498 +11% Sep 16 Sep 18 Sep 20 Sep 22 Sep 23 $87.2k $83.3k $79.5k $75.7k 24h High $87,251 24h Low $83,654 Market projections Odds by Myriad Buy Bitcoin with USDT Powered by Jupiter Canada has tried digital cash before and shelved it. The Royal Canadian Mint sold off its MintChip digital-cash pilot in 2016, and the app built on it shut down for good in 2018. In the United States, JPMorgan, Citi, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo are building a rival tokenized deposit network through The Clearing House - the bank-owned real-time payments operator - targeting a first-half 2027 launch, largely to keep stablecoins from siphoning off deposits. Thirty-nine U.S. state banking associations have their own version too, the BankChain Alliance, aimed at community and regional lenders. Canada's Scotiabank and TD are named among the 21 banks backing a separate joint U.S. dollar stablecoin, also targeting the first half of 2027 - meaning the same institutions are betting on tokenized deposits and stablecoins at once. Another bank, BMO went live this year as the first bank on CME Group's tokenized cash platform on Google Cloud, letting institutional clients move U.S. dollars around the clock for margin and collateral. The six Canadian banks haven't set a launch date. The first phase stays limited to transfers between the participating institutions, with opening the system to other deposit-taking players still just a stated goal, not a commitment. Start every day with the top news stories right now, plus original features, a podcast, videos and more.

Six Canadian banks explore tokenized CAD deposits. Six major Canadian banks pilot tokenized deposits for interbank digital transfers. September 22, 2026 * Canada's six largest banks jointly explore tokenized Canadian dollar deposits to enable digital bank deposit movement between institutions. * The first phase focuses on transferring tokenized deposits among Canadian financial institutions, with potential expansion to other digital asset systems. * OSFI clarified tokenized deposits are not legally distinct from traditional deposits, providing regulatory clarity for the project. * Canada's Stablecoin Act, enacted in March, establishes a federal framework for fiat-backed stablecoins issued by non-financial institutions, effective in 2027. Bank of Montreal, CIBC, National Bank of Canada, Royal Bank of Canada, Scotiabank and TD Bank Group jointly announced a system for tokenized Canadian dollar deposits that would allow digital representations of bank deposits to move between financial institutions, according to a joint announcement on Tuesday. - Advertisement - Discover more Currencies & Foreign Exchange Financial Markets News Merchant Services & Payment Systems The initiative comes less than two weeks after Canada's banking regulator provided additional clarity on the legal permissibility of tokenized deposits. On Sept. 10, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions said tokenized deposits are "not legally distinct from traditional deposits," adding that the underlying technology of a financial product does not determine its legal nature. Tokenized deposits represent money held at a regulated bank and remain a liability of that bank, unlike fiat-backed stablecoins, which are separate digital assets backed by reserves held by their issuer. The banks said the system aims to support faster and programmable payments, with longer-term plans to open the initiative to other deposit-taking institutions. Concurrently, Canada is building out a broader regulatory framework for digital money. In March, Canada enacted its Stablecoin Act as part of Bill C-15, establishing a federal framework for fiat-backed stablecoins. Non-financial institution issuers must register with the Bank of Canada, maintain 1:1 reserves in high-quality liquid assets, and offer redemption at par, with the framework expected to take effect in 2027. - Advertisement - Stay in the loop. Join 1.2K Smart Traders News September 23, 2026 OpenAI launched GPT-6 Sol at $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million... News September 22, 2026 A trading bot repeatedly buying and selling $1 contracts on Kalshi's Zohran Mamdani prediction... News September 22, 2026 A critical unauthenticated remote code execution vulnerability (CVE-2026-90898, CVSS 9.8) affects all versions of... News September 22, 2026 Binance invested $100 million in Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoinBoth companies expanded... News September 22, 2026 Here is the HTML code for the cryptocurrency news article, formatted as requested... Guides December 17, 2021 Ever since Facebook renamed their company to Meta, as well as their plans to build a metaverse where Bitnewsbot can travel into using Virtual...

Big banks exploring Canadian dollar-based digital money with tokenized deposits. Daniel Johnson TORONTO - Canada's big banks are exploring the development of Canadian dollar-based digital money, starting with a tokenized deposits initiative. Tokenized deposits are traditional bank deposits recorded on a decentralized database or distributed ledger, such as a blockchain. The plan seeks to deliver faster, more efficient and programmable payments to Canadian customers while preserving safety, stability and effective regulatory oversight. It means Canadian dollars could be converted into tokens on blockchain for easier transfers, said Claire Célérier, Canada Research Chair in household finance at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. "My understanding is that the six banks will share the same blockchain, and so it implies that transactions can be made instantaneously across wallets with tokens," she said. Bank of Montreal, CIBC, National Bank, Royal Bank, Scotiabank and TD Bank are taking a collaborative approach to the project. The tokens would be issued by commercial banks and from a legal perspective, depositors can treat them the same as traditional bank deposits. The banks say the first phase aims to move tokenized deposits between Canadian financial institutions. "It's really exploratory now. I think what they're saying is that they're willing to work together to develop the technology," Célérier said. She said the potential capabilities would be of particular benefit to large companies or institutional investors, allowing them to complete "more sophisticated transactions." "What I expect is that these tokenized dollars will be mostly used by large companies and so on who have accounts across these Canadian banks, and it will be used to move large amounts of money," she said. Cristian Bravo, professor and Canada Research Chair in banking and insurance analytics at Western University, said the potential change could allow large producers to settle accounts far faster than their typical 30-day window. "If you have an instant settlement, you're closing that gap and closing that inefficiency in the market. And the fact that you have the money when you fulfil the contract, that can help reduce dependency on working capital and mobilize that capital faster," he said. But Bravo said that due to the lack of historical examples, it is not clear how much of an effect the move could have on the bottom lines of companies or institutional investors that use it. Bravo said it is also notable that digital money is not the same as cryptocurrency, but rather a "digital ledger to move deposits in a very quick, instant way."