How banks profit from CBDCs, stablecoins and tokenised deposits

Finextra and consultancy CGI will host a webinar examining how banks can profit from central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), stablecoins and tokenised deposits after the US GENIUS Act. The session will focus on infrastructure, settlement, liquidity and operational control and will gather industry experts to move the discussion from use cases to implementation. Scott Hamilton, global payments and liquidity expert and contributing editor at Finextra, will moderate.

Panelists will assess the technical and operational requirements for CBDCs, privately issued stablecoins and bank-issued tokenised deposits, and the implications for banks’ balance sheets, liquidity operations and customer services.

From an infrastructure standpoint, CBDCs typically operate on central bank platforms and require banks to have direct or indirect access to central accounts along with defined minting and redemption procedures. Stablecoins are issued by private firms and depend on market infrastructure for minting, burning and custody, and often require integration with issuer systems and on-chain monitoring. Tokenised deposits represent bank liabilities recorded on distributed ledgers and require secure token issuance, custody and reconciliation tools that link the ledger back to a bank’s core systems.

Settlement and liquidity management change when digital money circulates on alternative rails and runs 24/7. Real-time settlement can cut settlement times but increases the need for continuous liquidity provisioning, intraday funding and prefunding of on‑ and off‑ramps. Banks will need tools to monitor token-level liquidity, handle cross-rail flows and manage reserve or funding requirements where tokens represent claims on central bank or commercial bank money.

Operational costs include integrating legacy systems with distributed ledger platforms, ongoing custody and reconciliation for tokenised assets, compliance systems for continuous transaction monitoring, smart contract audits and costs tied to minting and burning tokens. Legal and compliance work to map tokenised products to existing rules and the expense of building or connecting ledger bridges add further costs.

Customer onboarding, KYC/AML checks, custody and client relationships are functions banks are likely to retain even when settlement layers sit outside their systems. Many operational touchpoints-such as token issuance engines, distributed ledgers and stablecoin reserve management-may be run by third parties, creating dependency on external providers and raising issues around operational resilience, contractual rights and recoverability of client funds if platform operators encounter problems.

Outsourcing in digital currency services can differ from standard vendor arrangements because services may affect real-time liquidity, regulatory reporting and a bank’s ability to meet statutory obligations. Banks will need to weigh which functions to keep in-house, for example client onboarding, risk controls and fiat custody for on‑ramps, and which to delegate under robust contractual and technical safeguards.

Cross-border activity introduces a patchwork of licensing, reserve backing, consumer protection and reporting rules. Banks operating across multiple jurisdictions will need harmonised internal policies and flexible operational models to comply with differing standards while regulatory frameworks are developed.

The webinar will cover potential revenue streams such as token custody, fiat-to-token conversion services, liquidity provisioning and programmable payments, and the operational, legal and reputational guardrails banks should consider as digital money infrastructure is implemented.