NAB has completed an intra-bank cross-border transaction using its own minted stablecoin.
Conducted in concert with Fireblocks and Blockfold, the pilot transaction on the public and permissionless Ethereum blockchain involved deployment of stablecoin smart contracts for seven major global currencies. The pilot’s success demonstrates the potential to cut cross-border transactions from days to minutes, says the bank.
NAB’s Australian stablecoin, AUDN, is fully backed one-for-one with the Australian dollar and managed as a liability of the bank,
NAB’s ambition is to enable transactions across seven of the top globally utilised currencies: Australian, New Zealand, Singapore and US dollars, Euro, Yen and Pound Sterling. The Australian bank expects to be supporting select corporate and institutional clients to transact using digital assets by the end of 2023.
NAB executive general manager, Markets, Drew Bradford, says: “We are committed to pursuing the right digital asset opportunities with clear customer benefits. We believe that elements of the future of finance will be blockchain enabled and we’re already witnessing rapid change in the tokenisation market. The stringent governance frameworks we have in place ensures we can support the creation of a safe and reliable digital financial system.”
While rival bank ANZ last year completed a first domestic transaction for its A$DC stablecoin, Bradford says NAB's cross-border, multicurrency pilot represents a world first for a major financial institution.
To learn more about payments innovation, register for NextGen Nordics to take place on 25 April 2023.