Banks’ readiness tested as digital money expands

In June 2026 a 140‑firm consortium that includes Visa, Mastercard, BlackRock and Stripe launched Open USD, a shared dollar stablecoin network. In the same month JPMorgan, Citi, Bank of America and Wells Fargo announced a bank‑led tokenised‑deposit system through The Clearing House. SoFi added a stablecoin to its banking app, and Western Union and MoneyGram introduced dollar tokens for remittances. The European Central Bank plans to launch its wholesale DLT settlement platform Pontos in Q3 2026 and has scheduled a retail digital euro pilot for 2027. Legislative and regulatory work cited in industry reporting includes the US GENIUS Act proposals, the EU’s MiCA rules and the UK’s systemic stablecoin regime.

New research from RedCompass Labs assesses bank readiness across three layers of digital money: stablecoins, tokenised deposits and central bank digital currencies. The analysis examines how each layer interacts with existing payment hubs, affects deposit management and requires changes to custody, settlement and liquidity operations. It also reviews rails for cross‑border and business‑to‑business payments and the likely deployment scenarios for each digital‑money type.

The report lists infrastructure needs such as secure custody models for on‑ledger assets, redesigned payment‑hub interfaces, reconciliation between on‑chain and off‑chain records, and liquidity‑management tools that can operate with 24/7 settlement windows. Cross‑border flows will require interoperability between rails, compliance screening, standardised messaging and support for atomic settlement and multi‑currency liquidity pooling. For B2B transactions the analysis identifies tokenised deposits and wholesale CBDCs as candidates for predictable settlement finality and integration with corporate treasury systems.

Industry groups and bank networks are drafting operational rulebooks to define interoperability requirements, custody responsibilities and dispute‑resolution procedures. Emerging regulatory frameworks in the US, EU and UK set compliance baselines for issuance, custody and redemption of tokenised instruments.

The research describes different industry roles for each layer. Stablecoins are being promoted by commercial providers as interoperable rails for consumer payments, remittances and shared liquidity. Tokenised deposits are being developed by banks to keep deposit liabilities on‑chain while maintaining balance‑sheet relationships and regulatory oversight, and to enable on‑ledger settlement for interbank and corporate flows. Wholesale CBDC projects focus on central‑bank money on ledgers for interbank finality, while retail CBDC pilots aim to offer a public digital tender for everyday payments.

A webinar organised with RedCompass Labs will feature Santhosh Kumar of RedCompass Labs, Mark Willis of Standard Chartered, Neil Chopra of Fireblocks and moderator Scott Hamilton. The session will cover implementation steps, technology options and the operational challenges banks report when migrating payment hubs, managing deposit bases and providing client services on token platforms.

Industry activity in June 2026 saw infrastructure, rulebooks and pilot projects move toward production environments.