Stablecoin World Opens Up to Smaller Banks — WSJ

By Gina HeebThousands of Main Street banks struggling to keep up with crypto's push into mainstream finance will soon get an opening to the rapidly evolving world of stablecoins.Financial-technology giant Fiserv plans to launch a stablecoin and platform that could be used by its clients, which include roughly 3,000 regional and community banks, executives told The Wall Street Journal. The platform is expected to be compatible with other stablecoins and allow for easy connection with the other 10,000 financial institutions and millions of merchant locations that Fiserv works with.Stablecoins act as digital dollars in the broader crypto world, allowing users to easily trade in and out of other tokens. Congress is advancing legislation that could accelerate their adoption for more everyday transactions.Fiserv will build its platform on top of the payments and financial-services technology through which it already touches trillions of dollars in transactions each year. The stablecoin will be called FIUSD, but banks could work with Fiserv to create their own branded coins.The venture will "democratize access" in the stablecoin market, said Fiserv Chief Operating Officer Takis Georgakopoulos.Fiserv will partner with the blockchain platform Solana and stablecoin companies Circle Internet Group and Paxos on the venture, which should be launched by the end of the year. It plans to announce a separate partnership with PayPal, which has its own stablecoin, and is in talks to potentially team up with card networks.Regional and community banks have been caught flat-footed by the possibility that stablecoins could become more mainstream, with many already straining to keep up with the costs of technology, as well as the technical and regulatory know-how around it.A broad shift to crypto would put at risk the deposits that regional and community banks are especially reliant on to make loans. If customers were to pull deposits out of accounts and put them into stablecoins, that would leave the banks less room to lend, a critical source of revenue.Walmart and Amazon.com have explored whether to issue stablecoins of their own, the Journal previously reported, and the largest U.S. banks have weighed issuing one through a consortium model.Designed to be a less volatile type of crypto, stablecoins are supposed to maintain a 1-to-1 exchange ratio with dollars or other government currencies for easier use in transactions. They are meant to maintain a steady value through backing from reserves of Treasurys or other cash-like assets.Banks see an opportunity for stablecoins to speed up commercial and consumer transactions, with lower costs. But some remain cautious about the security and regulatory implications of stablecoins.FIUSD and the stablecoin platform will have built-in fraud, risk-management and settlement controls, Fiserv said, and large banks will handle custody of the stablecoin.Fiserv said it would allow its bank clients to implement its stablecoin technology at no additional cost. But it will demand transaction fees and part of the yield earned through reserve investments such as Treasurys.Write to Gina Heeb at [email protected]