Banks prepare for multi-track shift to digital money

In June 2026 a 140-member consortium including Visa, Mastercard, BlackRock and Stripe launched Open USD. In the same month JPMorgan, Citi, Bank of America and Wells Fargo announced a bank-led tokenised-deposit network through The Clearing House. SoFi, Western Union and MoneyGram began offering dollar tokens. The European Central Bank plans to launch Pontos, a wholesale settlement system on distributed ledger technology, this quarter and has scheduled a retail digital-euro pilot for 2027. Regulatory initiatives related to digital money are in development in major markets.

Data from RedCompass Labs indicates market participants are moving along multiple tracks. Open USD is positioned as a broad stablecoin network backed by payments firms and asset managers. The Clearing House effort is a bank-led platform to tokenise deposits and move traditional deposit liquidity onto distributed ledgers. Retail firms and remittance providers are embedding dollar tokens in consumer apps and cross-border rails.

Banks are responding in different ways. Some institutions are joining or building tokenised-deposit infrastructure to keep deposit relationships and control settlement between banks. Other banks are integrating with open stablecoin networks or offering custodial services, fiat on-ramps and liquidity provision for externally issued tokens. Treasury and payments teams are testing token standards, wallet interoperability, real-time liquidity tools and regulatory reporting requirements. Wholesale CBDC projects are prompting banks to review central-bank settlement links and intraday liquidity practices.

Infrastructure choices are shaping use cases. Public blockchains and consortium networks host many stablecoins and consumer tokens because they offer open access and developer ecosystems that support faster cross-border transfers and retail remittances. Permissioned or bank-operated ledgers are being used for tokenised deposits and some wholesale settlement scenarios where identity, compliance controls and predictable throughput are required. Wholesale CBDC designs focus on central bank-to-bank settlement and linking reserve balances to tokenised instruments for quicker finality in interbank markets.

Rail considerations differ by payment type. Stablecoins provide liquidity and speed for retail cross-border flows and remittances when market makers and custodians offer reliable on/off ramps. Tokenised deposits are aimed at B2B treasury use cases, enabling instant settlement of corporate cash and automated liquidity sweeps while keeping balances on bank balance sheets. Wholesale CBDCs target reduced settlement risk and improved interoperability between central-bank systems and commercial-bank infrastructure for high-value transactions and securities settlement.

The layers affect banks’ payment hubs and deposit bases in distinct ways. Tokenised deposits generally remain bank liabilities and require updates to core systems to issue, move and reconcile tokenised liabilities while maintaining reserve and capital treatments. Stablecoins issued by non-bank consortia typically sit off bank balance sheets but increase demand for custody, on/off ramp services and liquidity provision; banks providing those services may derive fee income and face added operational and compliance work. A retail CBDC would be a central-bank liability accessible to the public and could change the composition of retail deposits unless banks act as intermediaries for wallets and authentication.

Industry participants and RedCompass Labs identify key gaps: interoperability between token standards and legacy systems, consistent KYC/AML and compliance frameworks across jurisdictions, scalable custody solutions for tokenised assets, and payment-hub architectures able to orchestrate multiple token types and rails. Emerging regulatory regimes vary by market, which complicates cross-border product design.

Operational tasks for banks include integrating APIs for token issuance and transfer, updating reconciliation and accounting processes for near-instant settlement, and deploying liquidity tools to manage intraday balances across tokenised and traditional accounts. Firms also need governance arrangements for network participation, dispute resolution and fraud controls when dealing with non-bank token issuers and cross-border partners.

Market activity through mid-2026 points to segmentation by function: stablecoins are concentrated in retail cross-border and remittance flows, tokenised deposits focus on corporate liquidity and deposit preservation, and wholesale CBDCs concentrate on interbank settlement and high-value clearing. Pilots and regulatory work are ongoing. RedCompass Labs plans a webinar to examine practical steps banks are taking to implement these digital-money layers and the industry’s readiness to operate multiple rails.