Canada’s Big Six banks launch joint tokenized deposit pilot following OSFI clearance

Canada’s six largest banks are jointly building Canadian-dollar tokenized deposit rails, testing whether regulated bank money rather than cryptocurrency can anchor settlement for tokenized payments, securities and real-world assets. The move follows a September 10 regulatory ruling that clears banks to build under existing rules, putting Canada alongside the US, the Bank for International Settlements and SWIFT in a widening contest over which digital money settles on-chain finance.

• BMO, National Bank of Canada, RBC, Bank of Nova Scotia, CIBC and TD are jointly exploring Canadian-dollar tokenized deposits.
• OSFI ruled on September 10 that tokenized deposits carry the same legal status as conventional bank deposits.
• Project Samara, a Bank of Canada test with TD, RBC and Export Development Canada, showed atomic settlement works in principle but flagged governance and liquidity hurdles.

• 6 of Canada’s largest banks joined the tokenized-deposit pilot together
• 17 banks across six continents readying SWIFT’s tokenized-payment pilot
• $34.18B in real-world assets tokenized on-chain as of Sept 15, 2026

The six largest banks in Canada, Bank of Montreal, National Bank of Canada, Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of Nova Scotia, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and Toronto-Dominion Bank, are jointly exploring Canadian-dollar tokenized deposits, first reported by Dow Jones Newswires. The banks want to test whether regulated deposits, rather than cryptocurrencies, can settle tokenized payments, securities and real-world assets on distributed-ledger networks. Their move follows a ruling from Canada’s banking regulator that removed a key legal obstacle to the plan.

A tokenized deposit is still an ordinary bank deposit, according to the IMF, simply represented and transferred on distributed-ledger technology rather than existing as a separate asset class. The value lies in programmability without leaving the regulated banking system, letting banks run payments around the clock as coded instructions.

OSFI Rules Tokenized Deposits Equal to Regular Deposits

On September 10, 2026, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions said tokenized deposits carry no different legal status than conventional deposits, repeating its technology-neutral stance in a statement.

The underlying technology of a financial product or service does not determine its legal nature.

OSFI, Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions

That ruling lets banks build under existing rules instead of waiting for lawmakers to draft a new legal regime for on-chain deposits. OSFI still expects regulated entities to meet the technology, cyber and third-party risk requirements it already applies to conventional banking, so the ruling removes legal uncertainty without lowering the compliance bar.

Bank of Canada’s Project Samara Already Tested Atomic Settlement

Canada has already piloted the underlying infrastructure. Project Samara, a Bank of Canada experiment involving TD, RBC and Export Development Canada, used DLT and a wholesale central bank digital currency to settle a tokenized bond transaction, according to the Bank of Canada experiment. The central bank concluded atomic settlement works in principle but flagged unresolved questions on complexity, governance, liquidity, operations and legal alignment.

SWIFT and US Banks Chase the Same Rail With Rival Networks

Canada is one of four parallel efforts moving in the same direction. BIS said in May that Project Agorá, which includes the Bank of Canada, showed tokenized central-bank reserves and commercial deposits can improve wholesale cross-border payments, according to its release, and the project is moving toward real-world testing.

In June 2026, JPMorgan, Citigroup, Bank of America and Wells Fargo backed a Clearing House-run tokenized deposit network in the US that connects to existing rails such as RTP and CHIPS, Cryptopolitan reported. Bank of America’s Mark Monaco framed the effort as pairing digital-finance innovation with the settlement certainty of established bank