Lloyds and Visa complete stablecoin payment trial
Lloyds Banking Group has successfully completed a US$750,000 payment obligation to Visa using the USDC stablecoin in a seven-day trial. According to Yahoo Finance, the funds were transferred to Visa in under an hour, even across a weekend. Traditional cross-border settlements typically take longer when initiated outside of bank operating hours.
The transaction was facilitated using USDC purchased through Archax, a UK-regulated digital asset exchange. Lloyds' Corporate Markets branch in Jersey booked the transaction, which was then sent to Visa in the United States. This trial connected two distinct blockchain environments: Lloyds operates its own node on the Canton Network with configurable privacy features, while Visa settled transactions on a separate public blockchain.
Peter Left, Head of Digital Assets at Lloyds Banking Group, stated, "It’s allowed us to move beyond the theoretical and to test that capability in real-world conditions." This trial marks the first stablecoin-based settlement between Visa and a major UK banking group.
In a related development, Lloyds released its tenth annual financial institution sentiment survey on October 2, 2023. The survey found that 71% of 100 senior decision-makers from banks, insurance companies, asset managers, and financial sponsors predict that tokenization will reshape financial services. 60% cited faster payments and settlements as the biggest benefit, while 41% highlighted collateral and liquidity management.