Circle responds to the BIS blockchain project Agorá collaborates with seven central banks to simplify crossborder payment processes

Project Agorá recently announced a public call for participation from private sector businesses, hoping to overcome current payment challenges, especially in cross-border payments, through the joint efforts of public-private partnerships. Cross-border payments will also face various challenges such as different legal, regulatory, and technical requirements, operational hours, and time zone differences. Furthermore, the complexity of implementing financial integrity controls (such as anti-money laundering and customer verification) is increased, as in the existing financial framework, the same transaction often needs to be repeated multiple times depending on the number of intermediary institutions involved. Project Agorá aims to improve these situations through a “public-private cooperative programmable core financial platform.”