Seven central banks, including the Bank of Canada, are advancing trials of a continuous cross-border payment system that could process international transactions around the clock, according to Reuters. The initiative, known as Project Agorá, aims to replace the current system where cross-border transfers often take days and shut down outside business hours.

Currently, international money transfers — including remittances sent by temporary workers and permanent residents to family abroad — operate on business-day schedules tied to each country's banking hours. Delays of two to five business days are standard, and transfers initiated on weekends or holidays face additional wait times. The new system would eliminate these gaps by running continuously.

The Bank of Canada is participating alongside the central banks of France, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, with the Bank for International Settlements coordinating the project. The testing phase focuses on tokenized commercial bank deposits, which would allow funds to move between countries in real time without waiting for traditional clearing processes. The system uses distributed ledger technology — the same infrastructure underlying blockchain networks — to record transactions across multiple institutions simultaneously.

"This represents a fundamental shift in how cross-border payments could function," the Bank for International Settlements stated in its project overview.

The development matters directly for Canada's immigration community. Temporary foreign workers sent an estimated $3.2 billion in remittances from Canada in 2024, according to World Bank data, with transfer fees averaging 6.4 percent per transaction. Permanent residents and naturalized citizens maintaining financial ties to origin countries face similar costs and delays. An always-on system could reduce both the time and expense of these transfers.