Twenty-one leading financial institutions, including prominent U.S. banks like Bank of America, Capital One, Citi, Goldman Sachs, PNC Financial Services, and Wells Fargo, announced their commitment to establish a new company in the second half of 2026. This new entity will focus on supporting the issuance of a stablecoin solution, with an initial offering denominated in USD and a long-term goal of expanding into other G7 currencies, particularly the Euro, by the first half of 2027.
The initiative aims to provide a safe, robust, and trusted digital money solution with bank-grade compliance, strong governance, and institutional risk management. The stablecoin is intended for various use cases across wholesale, institutional, and retail markets, including cross-border payments and digital asset settlements. The group of institutions spans major geographies, including North America, Europe, East Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, and includes names like UBS, Santander, Deutsche Bank, Lloyds Banking Group, and MUFG Bank.
This development follows an October 2025 announcement where an initial group of ten banks began exploring a 1:1 reserve-backed digital money offering on public blockchains. The stablecoin initiative is designed to be compliant with regulations such as the GENIUS Act and MiCA. While rival consortiums and individual banks are also developing stablecoin solutions, the market is currently dominated by El Salvador-based Tether, which has issued over $180 billion worth of its dollar-pegged token.
The move by these banks is partly a response to the growing interest in digital assets and concerns from bank CEOs like Brian Moynihan of Bank of America, who warned that $30% to $35% of U.S. commercial bank deposits, potentially up to $6 trillion, could migrate into stablecoins. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has also championed stablecoins, viewing them as a way to reinforce the dollar's global reserve currency status. JPMorgan Chase, notably absent from this consortium, has its own tokenized deposit, JPM Coin, and is evaluating future options depending on customer demand and the regulatory landscape.
