Executive Summary
- As a former Banker running payments for 2 of the largest US banks I have a perspective on how this will play out. I may be wrong, but it is an informed perspective.
- As outlined 2 weeks ago banks in the EU are planning their own stablecoins.
- The GENIUS ACT forces stablecoin issuers to obtain bank licenses, thus this morning’s WSJ report that Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Chase are now in the mix is only logical
- As outlined in Stablecoin predictions, this will not impact cards as they retain their role in the last mile and banks protect the card model.
- As outlined in Power of Bank Networks, Payments are where the power of banking is unlocked. The major US banks are payment hubs that connect to all networks, from TCH, RTP, Swift, Card, …etc. These banks are leaders in innovation and in managing operations that consistently clear trillions of dollars PER DAY.
- The stablecoin settlement model is much simpler than an RTP network where each participating party has to register as a sender or receiver of payments. Senders must have settlement funds which restrict their ability to clear payments. In a Stablecoin model, originators only have to have valid stablecoins to transact, and can also create programmable rules around them (see Programmable Money)
- The business drivers are remittance, cross border, B2B, and the prospect of growing the global deposit base as international consumers and businesses buy stablecoins. Italy’s finance minister is quoted as saying USD stablecoin adoption (ie dollarization) represents a greater threat to the EU than Tarriffs.
- In my view this is a 3 yr effort. Banks don’t move quickly in isolation, and even more slowly in consortium. I do think that this will first move with commercial use cases and remittances, with banks as stablecoin issuers. Within retail consumer UCs, P2P and Zelle are the area that would be impacted first.
- US Banks should consider the slippery slope of Stablecoin. Once issued, their transfer can’t be restricted, and will operate without friction. Every movement of money becomes instant. This is why I don’t think we will see consumer interfaces within US bank domains in near term. Priority 1 is creating the stablecoin issuing platform and legal structure. Priority 2 is focusing on UCs like cross border and B2B.