Wells Fargo’s Stablecoin Pilot Targets X-Border Corporate Transfers

U.S. financial institution Wells Fargo has announced plans to pilot an internal settlement solution that operates on distributed ledger technology (DLT).

In a press release on Tuesday (Sept. 17), the bank announced the development of its Wells Fargo Digital Cash, a service designed to allow financial institutions (FIs) to complete cross-border payment book transfers internally across its global network using digitized cash. Those Wells locations can also exchange that digitized cash with one another. The service has already been tested to move digitized cash between the U.S. and Canada, the release noted.

Separate reports in CoinDesk explained that the solution is a stablecoin linked to the U.S. dollar. The digitized cash, in the form of a tokenized dollar, operates on Wells’ first blockchain platform.

“As a result of the increasing digitization of banking services globally, we see a growing demand to further reduce friction regarding traditional borders, and today’s technology puts us in a strong position to do that,” said Wells Fargo’s Head of Innovation Group Lisa Frazier in a statement. “We believe DLT holds promise for a variety of use cases, and we’re energized to take this significant step in applying the technology to banking in a material and scalable way.

“Wells Fargo Digital Cash has the potential to enable Wells Fargo to remove barriers to real-time financial interactions across multiple accounts in multiple marketplaces around the world,” she added.

DLT supports secure and permanent transaction records, the FI noted, while allowing for near-real-time movement of funds regardless of transaction posting and reconciliation infrastructure across borders. The pilot will also allow various Wells Fargo locations to move funds between each other outside of normal operating hours.

Wells Fargo said it will commence its pilot next year with an initial focus on the transfer of U.S. dollars, though the FI added that it plans to expand the testing of this service to other currencies.