RBC, TD, CIBC, BMO, Scotiabank and National Bank are working together to make it possible to move digital representations of deposits between them on a blockchain. (The Logic)

Talking point: Banks make a lot of money from payment fees, and from collecting interest on funds sitting in transit. The forthcoming Real-Time Rail instant payments system, and the mainstreaming of stablecoins and other blockchain-based payments, threaten that revenue. This initiative suggests Canada’s big banks understand it’s better to be part of the change than to resist it, said Soumak Chatterjee, who leads Deloitte Canada’s tech consulting business for the financial services industry. Chatterjee said co-operation is key in an initiative like this, since all six banks need to agree on what blockchain to use and other technical details. The announcement comes less than two weeks after Canada’s federal banking regulator said it considers tokenized deposits to be legally equivalent to traditional deposits.

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