Canada’s six largest banks put a shared digital-money project on the record. Identical releases dated 22 September 2026 from TD Bank Group, BMO Financial Group, and National Bank of Canada state that the banks are jointly exploring Canadian-dollar digital money solutions, starting with a tokenized-deposits initiative.

Tokenized bank deposits under exploration are not a retail Bank of Canada CBDC — and the releases commit to no launch date, no customer-app pilot, and no mandatory programmable wallet.
Citizen impact: If the project proceeds, the near-term design is interbank movement of tokenized deposits among participating institutions — framed as faster, more efficient, and “programmable” payments under existing regulatory oversight. Depositors should not read this as a secret digital loonie in their banking app, a cash ban, or a central-bank social-credit ledger. Pair with the Bank of Canada’s published scale-down of retail CBDC work and the documented Emergencies Act freeze litigation — different instruments, same hub.

What the banks actually said

Named participants: Bank of Montreal (BMO), Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), National Bank of Canada (NBC), Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), The Bank of Nova Scotia (Scotiabank), and TD Bank Group (TD). The releases say other deposit-taking institutions may join later. Phase one aims to move tokenized deposits efficiently across Canadian financial institutions; a longer-term goal is to connect with other emerging digital-asset initiatives. Each release carries standard forward-looking-statement cautions.

What this is not

This is not a Bank of Canada retail CBDC launch. The Bank’s Digital Canadian Dollar page still states years of research, no compelling case to proceed now, and a scale-down of retail CBDC work — with any issuance decision belonging to Parliament. The Big Six announcement is private-bank deposit tokenization exploration, not a Gazette instrument and not a BoC mandate.

Contested: Banks and payments innovators argue competitiveness and settlement efficiency. Privacy and civil-liberty skeptics hear “programmable payments” and reach for Emergencies Act freeze history. Report both frames; refuse inventing a live CBDC, a CDIC ruling change, or a launch calendar the releases never gave.

Bottom line

Do not write “Canada launched a digital dollar.” Do not invent a retail pilot date. Verified: six-bank CNW-style releases on 22 September 2026 exploring CAD tokenized deposits for interbank use — exploration language only.