Visa is expanding its use of stablecoins for settlement in Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa (CEMEA) through a new partnership with crypto infrastructure company Aquanow.
In an announcement Thursday, Visa said it partnered with Aquanow “to settle transactions using approved stablecoins such as USDC, reducing costs, operational friction, and settlement times.” The company said the move came amid strong demand from banks and payment companies for faster, cheaper cross-border payments.
The move aims to leverage stablecoins to digitize the back end of money movement and to enable 24/7 settlement. Godfrey Sullivan, Visa’s head of product and solutions for the CEMEA region, said the integration will allow institutions in the region “to experience faster and simpler settlements.”
“Our partnership with Aquanow is another key step in modernizing the backend rails of payments, reducing reliance on traditional systems with multiple intermediaries, and preparing institutions for the future of money movement,” he added.
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Stablecoin adoption goes parabolic
Stablecoins started as an easy way for cryptocurrency users to move money between crypto exchanges, but have since taken on the role of the US dollar in the onchain economy. Now, they are increasingly being used outside the crypto-native world, including for institutional settlement and payments.
Earlier this week, market infrastructure provider Deutsche Börse announced plans to integrate the EURAU euro-pegged stablecoin issued by AllUnity. This would expand the exchange group’s digital-asset strategy following earlier ties with Circle’s Euro Coin (EURC) and Societe Generale-Forge’s EUR CoinVertible (EURCV).
Related: Standard Chartered says $1T may exit emerging market banks to stablecoins by 2028
Deutsche Börse said it plans to begin integrating EURAU into its institutional custody service and also promised a future “integration of the euro stablecoin across the entire service portfolio.”
Regulators are still debating how to classify and supervise stablecoin exposure in the banking system.
Erik Thedéen, the governor of the Swedish central bank and chair of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, recently admitted that the group may need a “different approach” to the current 1,250% risk weighting for crypto exposures.
Separately, Bank of England Deputy Governor Sarah Breeden said she expects the UK to keep pace with the United States on stablecoin regulation, signaling that major jurisdictions may move in parallel as stablecoins become more embedded in payment and settlement systems.
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