Canada's six largest banks are jointly exploring tokenized Canadian-dollar deposits in an initiative that marks a major step by the country's banking sector toward on-chain payments.

Bank of Montreal, CIBC, National Bank of Canada, Royal Bank of Canada, Scotiabank, and TD Bank Group — the lenders collectively known as Canada's Big Six — said the first phase of the initiative will test the movement of tokenized deposits between Canadian financial institutions. The banks added that the project could eventually connect with other digital-asset systems as it develops. Because the participants span the country's six largest lenders, the first phase amounts to a coordinated test of interbank transfers at the core of the Canadian banking network rather than a single-institution pilot.

According to the participating lenders, the project is designed to enable faster, more efficient, and programmable payments while keeping funds within the regulated banking system. In this context, programmability refers to payment instructions that can carry conditions executed automatically on the underlying ledger. Tokenized deposits are digital versions of deposits held at regulated banks, distinguishing them from privately issued stablecoins, which are typically created by companies operating outside the traditional deposit framework. Such tokens are generally recorded and transferred using distributed-ledger technology.

The initiative arrives as Canadian financial institutions and regulators continue to broaden their work on tokenized financial markets. In March 2026, the Bank of Canada said that Project Samara had demonstrated the issuance and trading of a tokenized bond using distributed-ledger technology, with payments settled in wholesale central bank deposits.

Separately, the central bank joined Project Agorá, an initiative led by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), in May 2026. That project examines how tokenized commercial-bank deposits and central bank money could be used to improve the efficiency of wholesale cross-border payments.

The six banks said they expect the initiative to potentially expand to include other deposit-taking institutions as the project develops, broadening participation beyond the founding group. How the first-phase interbank tests perform, and whether other digital-asset systems and additional deposit-taking institutions are brought in as the banks have outlined, are the immediate markers to watch as the project advances.