Six of Canada’s largest banks have announced a joint effort to explore digital money solutions denominated in Canadian dollars, starting with a project focused on tokenized deposits. The initiative was disclosed in a joint statement released Sept. 22, 2026.
The participating institutions are Bank of Montreal, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, National Bank of Canada, Royal Bank of Canada, The Bank of Nova Scotia, and TD Bank Group. According to the announcement, the banks anticipate that other deposit-taking institutions could join the effort at a later stage.
What Tokenized Deposits Would Do
The banks describe the project as an attempt to drive responsible innovation and support broad participation in the digital money ecosystem for the benefit of Canadians. The stated goal is to deliver payments that are faster, more efficient, and programmable, while preserving safety, stability, and effective regulatory oversight.
The first phase of the project is aimed at moving tokenized deposits efficiently between Canadian financial institutions. Over the longer term, the banks say they intend to connect this work with other emerging digital asset initiatives, though no timeline or further technical detail was provided in the announcement.
Why Banks Are Collaborating
The joint statement frames the effort as a response to the global evolution of digital money, with the banks saying Canada’s payments infrastructure needs to remain competitive and secure as that shift continues. By working together rather than pursuing separate initiatives, the six banks say they aim to encourage broader participation in tokenized deposit infrastructure across the country’s financial system.
No financial figures, project costs, or specific launch dates were disclosed in connection with the initiative. The announcement did not specify which banks would lead technical development or how other deposit-taking institutions might eventually be brought into the project.
What’s Next
The banks did not provide a timeline for when tokenized deposits might become available to customers or how the technology would be tested. The statement characterizes the current stage as exploratory, with the six institutions jointly examining how such a system could function within Canada’s existing regulatory framework before any broader rollout.
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