Monday, January 17, 2022

Bank-led group to mint, use USDF stablecoins

Five banks are part of a group formed to mint and use USDF stablecoins.

The initial members of the USDF Consortium include New York Community Bank, NBH Bank, FirstBank, Sterling National Bank and Synovus Bank. Figure Technologies and JAM FINTOP, which are also among the founders, will facilitate and promote the adoption of USDF. 

Figure has spent recent years developing the USDF, which operates on the Provenance blockchain. The consortium said in a press release that it will look to “significantly grow” its membership of FDIC-insured banks. 

"USDF opens up endless possibilities for the expanding world of DeFi transactions," Mike Cagney, Figure’s CEO, said in the release. 

"The ease and immediacy of using USDF for on-chain transactions was demonstrated this fall when [New York Community] minted USDF used to settle securities trades executed on Figure's alternative trading systems,” Cagney said. “We are tremendously excited that NYCB expects to be minting USDF on demand and on a regular basis in the coming weeks." 

The group’s formation "will solve a critical need to move funds on blockchain, and it does so in a way that can scale, adheres to regulatory standards and is acceptable to all users from large institutional investors to retail customers," Andrew Kaplan, New York Community's chief digital and banking as a service officer, said in the release. 

"As a form of digital currency created and administered by regulated U.S. banks within the USDF consortium, USDF will enable wide use of an on-chain, real-time payments system that satisfies important principles of safety and soundness, compliance with anti-money laundering standards and financial stability,” Kaplan added. 

New York Community announced in August that it would work with Figure on a series of blockchain projects. The banking company also made a direct equity investment in Figure as part of the deal. 

National Bank Holdings, the parent of NBH Bank, has also invested in Figure as part of a broader partnership.

New York Community and Figure are also investors in the JAM FINTOP Blockchain fund, which was created to invest in and develop blockchain infrastructure and businesses.


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