Project Samara Research Paper

Rakesh Arora, Umar Faruqui, Scott Hendry, Dinesh Shah, André Usche, Mark Byrne, Caroline Cook, Kevin Fraites, Wally Forsyth, Alex Caridia, Chris Meston, Teresa Venturino, Devon Read, Chadrick Buffel, Anne Boulanger, Sylvie Lacombe and Marsha Loraas

No 2026-8, Staff Analytical Papers from Bank of Canada

Abstract: Project Samara was a limited, real world experiment designed to evaluate the use of distributed ledger technology (DLT) and wholesale central bank digital money (W CAD) in Canadian capital markets. The project involved the issuance of a single tokenized bond by Export Development Canada to a closed investor group, with RBC Capital Markets and TD Securities acting as joint lead managers. Settlement was conducted in central bank money issued by the Bank of Canada through a purpose built DLT platform integrating a securities ledger and a cash ledger to support end to end market processes. The experiment assessed whether DLT could improve efficiency, reduce settlement risk through atomic settlement, and enhance settlement finality and transaction speed. Project Samara showed that DLT based issuance and settlement of real financial instruments is technically feasible and can improve data integrity and reduce counterparty and settlement risk. These benefits were partly offset by increased system complexity, governance and liquidity costs, and new operational risks, as well as legal and regulatory frictions stemming from the need to reconcile decentralized ledger designs with existing centralized market roles. Given its narrow scope and experimental design, the findings are preliminary and illustrative, but they provide useful insights for future research and policy discussions on tokenization and DLT based financial market infrastructure.

Keywords: Financial markets and funds management; Funds management; Market structure; Money and payments; Digital assets and fintech; Payment and financial market infrastructures (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E42 E58 G28 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-03
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bca:bocsap:26-8

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