Tokenised deposits and stablecoins for banks’ digital money

Finextra and Fireblocks argue that banks need both tokenised deposits and bank-issued stablecoins to complete a full digital money service. Tokenised deposits support programmable liquidity inside a bank’s balance sheet, while stablecoins move value across borders for real-time settlement.

Tokenised deposits sit on a bank’s regulated balance sheet and remain inside its KYC perimeter. That structure makes them suitable for programmable operations such as real-time cash concentration across accounts, conditional disbursements, and atomic settlement among legal entities.

Bank-issued stablecoins are designed to transfer value across national borders and through capital-control boundaries that can prevent local-currency balances from being used outside their home jurisdiction. When used alongside tokenised deposits, stablecoins can cover cross-border payment legs that on‑balance-sheet deposits cannot reach.

Industry implementations are moving into production. Reported use cases include settlement that operates outside traditional banking hours, delivery-versus-payment that clears instantly rather than over several days, and treasury systems that provide near‑real‑time visibility across subsidiaries without manual reconciliation. Firms testing combined setups find a single provider can execute both internal liquidity flows and external payment chains for treasurers working in convertible and controlled currencies.

Demand is coming from correspondent banks, counterparties and market infrastructure as well as corporate clients. Correspondents increasingly expect the ability to connect to tokenised rails and stablecoin rails, a requirement that can become a qualifying condition in requests for proposals.

Regulatory and policy limits remain. National approvals, capital requirements and capital‑control rules determine where stablecoins can be used and how bank-issued tokenisation is treated. Banks must keep tokenised deposits on balance sheet and meet KYC, reserve and capital-treatment rules. Stablecoins raise questions about reserve backing and cross-border regulatory coordination when value moves outside a single banking system.

Finextra and Fireblocks are convening a webinar to discuss where tokenised deposits and stablecoins deliver value in mandate strategies and what barriers remain. Speakers include Shrutisagar (Shruti) Chandrasekaran, vice president of Global Business Solutions at Fireblocks, and Scott Hamilton, a global payments and liquidity expert who will moderate the session. The panel will cover practical use cases, technical connectivity expectations from correspondents, and the regulatory and policy issues banks must address.