Lloyds Banking Group has completed three live tokenised deposit transactions as part of the real-value testing phase of Project Agorá, an international initiative exploring how tokenisation could improve wholesale cross-border payments.

Lloyds said the latest transactions covered sterling, Swiss franc and euro payment scenarios, including a cross-currency transaction that linked foreign exchange conversion, payment, and settlement into a single transaction flow.

In the cross-currency test, the bank's Corporate Markets division converted Swiss francs into sterling, while Lloyds Bank provided the sterling settlement. By linking the foreign exchange conversion, payment, and settlement together, Lloyds said the transaction completed simultaneously rather than through the multiple separate steps used in traditional cross-border payments.

The bank added the trial demonstrated how tokenisation could improve transparency and reduce friction in international payment flows.

Lloyds also took part as a customer bank in separate Swiss franc and euro transactions using tokenised deposits. Together, the three transactions tested how tokenised commercial bank money could support payments across multiple currencies within the regulated banking system.

Project Agorá is convened by the Bank for International Settlements and the Institute of International Finance. It brings together eight central banks and more than 40 financial institutions to explore how tokenised central bank reserves and commercial bank deposits could operate on a shared programmable platform.

The initiative aims to address longstanding inefficiencies in wholesale cross-border payments by exploring how tokenisation can streamline payment, settlement and foreign exchange processes while operating within the regulated banking system.

In May last year the project demonstrated that wholesale cross-border transactions could be settled atomically across multiple currencies and jurisdictions using tokenised central bank reserves and tokenised commercial bank deposits. Atomic settlement allows transactions to complete simultaneously on an “all-or-nothing” basis.

The latest work builds on Lloyds' wider digital asset strategy. In July 2025, the bank worked with Aberdeen Investments and Archax on what it described as the UK's first use of tokenised money market fund units and tokenised UK gilts as collateral for foreign exchange trades. Earlier this year, it also completed the UK's first public blockchain transaction using tokenised deposits.

“Moving from prototypes to live transactions is an important step in understanding how tokenised deposits could work in real payment scenarios,” said Peter Left, head of digital markets and inovation at Lloyds Banking Group. “This testing has allowed us to bring together our payments, settlement and foreign exchange capabilities in a cross-currency transaction.

“It gives us valuable practical insight into how tokenisation could help reduce friction and settlement risk in wholesale payments, while operating within the regulated banking system.”

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