How Banks Can Profit From the Digital Currency Race

An online webinar will bring together industry experts to examine how banks can profit from central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), stablecoins and tokenised deposits. The session will focus on the infrastructure, settlement and control issues that affect banks as digital forms of money expand.

Panelists will outline the different infrastructure requirements for each form of digital money. CBDCs generally require integration with central bank platforms and clear procedures for onboarding and offboarding participants. Stablecoins rely on issuers’ minting and burning processes and on legal arrangements that back the coin. Tokenised deposits typically run on private or permissioned ledgers that link tokens to a bank’s balance sheet. Banks will need to decide whether to act as issuers, custodians, payment processors or intermediaries for these systems.

Speakers will address settlement timing and liquidity effects. Real-time payments have already shortened intraday liquidity cycles; tokenised assets and instant settlement can speed fund movement further and change the timing of cash flows. Minting and burning events for stablecoins and tokenised deposits can affect reserve needs and collateral management. Banks may need liquidity buffers or access to intraday credit facilities to meet new timing pressures.

The webinar will examine how control and operational scope are shifting. Token issuance, ledger operation and some secondary-market functions can sit outside a bank’s direct systems. Banks are likely to retain customer-facing tasks such as identity checks, onboarding, custody of underlying assets and compliance monitoring while relying on third parties for rails, token minting or distributed ledger operation. The discussion will consider how those linkages should be structured to meet regulatory duties when services are outsourced.

Speakers will identify operational and compliance costs that can be overlooked. Beyond integrating technology, banks may face higher costs for transaction monitoring, cross-border reporting and maintenance of liquidity facilities. Operational work can include reconciliation between tokenised systems and core ledgers, legal documentation to define token rights, and potential capital or reserve requirements linked to token holdings. Differences in infrastructure and rules across jurisdictions can increase the cost of cross-border flows.

Panelists will outline business opportunities for banks. Potential roles include issuing tokenised deposits, providing custody and settlement services, market-making to supply liquidity, and running platforms for tokenised asset issuance. Banks could also offer treasury products to manage token liquidity and services that bridge traditional accounts and on‑chain environments.

Regulatory developments will be part of the discussion. Recent attention on stablecoin legislation in the United States has renewed debate about rules for tokenised finance. The webinar will consider how banks can set internal governance and policy guardrails while regulatory frameworks are still being developed and vary across jurisdictions.

The session aims to move the conversation from use cases to concrete infrastructure and implementation choices. Panelists will discuss which functions banks are likely to keep, which can be outsourced, and how to manage the operational and liquidity implications of a growing digital money ecosystem.