Wells Fargo to launch settlement service run on its own DLT
U.S.-based financial services giant Wells Fargo is going to launch its own settlement service akin to JPMorgan's 'JPM Coin,' dubbed “Wells Fargo Digital Cash,” on its own first DLT (distributed ledger technology) platform.
The company announced the news on Tuesday, saying that the planned service will bring in operational efficiencies, including "real-time" processing of payments. It will allow Wells Fargo to settle internal cross-border payments across its global network of corporate clients.
A Wells Fargo representative told The Block that Wells Fargo Digital Cash is “not a cryptocurrency,” adding: “It is 1:1 against a tokenized USD / fiat currency that runs on a distributed ledger rail.”
When asked if Wells Fargo Digital Cash can be called a stablecoin, the representative said, it is “an internal settlement service that runs on an underlying distributed ledger rail that supports tokenized fiat currency.”
The representative also said that the DLT platform is built on enterprise blockchain software firm R3's Corda network.
The pilot project, planned for next year, is expected to complete USD transfers initially. It will also add support for multiple currencies and the entire global Wells Fargo branch network in the future, per the announcement.
"Wells Fargo Digital Cash has the potential to enable Wells Fargo to remove barriers to real-time financial interactions across multiple accounts in multiple marketplaces around the world," said Lisa Frazier, head of the innovation group at Wells Fargo.
Earlier this year, investment banking giant JPMorgan also launched 'JPM Coin,' for “instantaneous” transfer of payments between the bank’s institutional clients. JPM Coin is pegged 1:1 to the U.S. dollar (USD) and was built using JPMorgan's own blockchain network called Quorum. German insurance giant Allianz is also set to launch a blockchain-based token for payments, similar to JPM Coin.
