21 firms plan dollar stablecoin for cross-border payments

A group of 21 banks and financial firms is preparing to launch a dollar stablecoin for business payments across borders. The group includes Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, and Goldman Sachs. The firms say they will form a new company in the second half of 2026. The firms aim to have the token live in the first half of 2027. Companies sending money overseas would be the first customers. Some regions may later offer the token to regular customers. The group wants to launch tokens tied to other Group of Seven currencies after the dollar version. The euro would come first among those currencies. Deutsche Bank, Santander, UBS, and Fidelity are also part of the group. The group includes banks in Canada, Japan, the Middle East, and Africa. Banks are treating the project as a defense against independent stablecoins that could pull deposits and payment fees away from them. JPMorgan Chase has considered launching its own stablecoin. Those talks are early, and JPMorgan Chase has no product in the works. Banks have also worked together on tokenized deposits, which represent regular bank deposits as digital tokens.