Canada's Big Six banks form joint venture to explore tokenised deposit network

Six of Canada’s largest banks have announced a joint venture to explore a shared Canadian-dollar tokenised deposit system, with TD Bank making the announcement on 22 September. Bank of Montreal, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, National Bank of Canada, Royal Bank of Canada, Scotiabank, and TD Bank Group form the consortium, with the group leaving open the possibility that additional lenders could join later.

The first phase targets interbank transfers of tokenised deposits among the six participants, with a stated longer-term ambition to connect that infrastructure to broader digital asset ecosystems. The banks describe the goal as enabling faster, programmable, around-the-clock payments while keeping customer funds inside the regulated banking perimeter. Critically, the initiative does not yet commit any participant to actually issuing a tokenised deposit; it is an exploration of a common model rather than a launched product.

The announcement arrives in the context of a maturing Canadian tokenisation agenda. In March, the Bank of Canada, RBC, and TD completed Project Samara, a test that issued, traded, and settled a 100 million Canadian dollar bond on a distributed ledger using tokenised wholesale Canadian dollars. Separately, Shopify and National Bank of Canada backed a regulated digital Canadian dollar in May. Globally, the Big Six initiative parallels efforts by US regional lenders building a shared tokenised-deposit network and Swift’s own cross-border tokenised deposit trials spanning six continents.

The consortium’s formation appears designed to anchor Canadian-dollar activity on blockchain networks within the banking system rather than ceding that ground to stablecoin issuers. Whether the exploration crystallises into a live interbank rail depends on regulatory engagement and the outcome of initial testing phases, both of which remain unspecified in the announcement.