The BIS Innovation Hub is the multi-jurisdictional research and pilot arm of the BIS, with centres in Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland, London, Stockholm, Frankfurt, Toronto, and the Eurosystem. The Hub has produced most of the consequential cross-border tokenisation pilots of the past five years, including mBridge (now graduated and operating under post-graduation governance), Project Agorá (multi-currency tokenised commercial bank money with seven central banks), Project Mariana (cross-border AMM-based wCBDC), and Project Pyxtrial. For tokenisation operators, the Hub is the venue where central banks experiment publicly with the architecture before national programmes ship. The Hub is in a leadership transition period across late 2025 and 2026.
Named products and pilots
Project Agorá. Flagship cross-border tokenisation programme testing tokenised commercial-bank deposits settling on a unified ledger alongside tokenised central bank money. Seven central banks (Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Bank of England, Banque de France, Bank of Japan, Bank of Korea, Bank of Mexico, Swiss National Bank) and more than 40 private-sector institutions were named in the September 2024 cohort announcement, including MUFG and, per the public participant list, SMBC. Status as of the most recent disclosure is pilot: a design-and-validation phase with no committed production-platform timeline (BIS Project Agorá).
Role in tokenisation
Owner of the cross-border tokenisation pilot portfolio. Project Agorá, mBridge (graduated), Mariana, Pyxtrial. National wholesale CBDC pilots (e.g. Project Ensemble in Hong Kong) sit alongside but are not Hub-owned.
Convening venue for central banks to test multi-currency tokenised settlement before national or bilateral commitment.
Hosts pilot infrastructure, including the G20 TechSprint annual challenge (run with a host central bank; 2025 challenge run with the South African Reserve Bank under the South African G20 Presidency).
Recent activity
25 Nov 2025Tommaso Mancini-Griffoli appointed Head of the BIS Innovation Hub, joining from IMF (Assistant Director, Payments, Currencies and Infrastructure). Starts 1 March 2026.
12 Nov 2025Andréa Maechler, Deputy General Manager of BIS and Acting Head of BIS Innovation Hub, delivers "How deposits can harness tokenisation" at the Singapore Fintech Festival. The most recent set-piece on tokenised deposits from the Hub leadership.
11 Nov 2025BIS and South African Reserve Bank announce winners of G20 TechSprint 2025 challenge on trust and integrity in finance.
Open questions
Whether the Mancini-Griffoli appointment signals a re-prioritisation of the cross-border tokenisation portfolio. The IMF Payments, Currencies and Infrastructure remit overlaps closely with Project Agorá scope, which could be read as continuity or as a deliberate signal of future emphasis.
Whether and when the post-graduation governance of mBridge will produce a public update on the surviving operating consortium.
Substantive content of the Maechler "How deposits can harness tokenisation" speech is not in the archived record.