Anchorage Digital, a federally chartered US Bank, says it will now support tokenized deposits for regulated banks. Anchorage states that the service does not require an upgrade to a banks existing tech stack but will provide 24/7 transfers and payments allowing banks to better compete and provide services that consumers and businesses want and need.
While there is a debate about the value of tokenization, Anchorage states that tokenized deposts represent a significant opportunit to support real time settlements in a secure and compliant manner. As banks want to (and really need to) update their offerings for their users, Anchorage sees an opportunity to add value to existing and new bank clients.
The company says their Digital’s Tokenized Deposits infrastructure takes an approach where blockchain operates as a parallel ledger, upgrading capabilities without replacing what is already in place.
Anchorage claims the upgrade means a bank can go live in weeks and not years.
As well, programmable settlements can be used to improve more complex multiparty use cases. The service is said to be globally interoperable.
Nathan McCauley, co-Founder and CEO of Anchorage Digital, believes that banks have spent decades earning client trust and they are providing a service that provides a faster and smarter way to manage deposits.
Perhaps a bigger question is if banks will want to provide a service that customers want but may mean they have to give up some of the earnings generated due to the float of holding funds, at times for days, which has not been needed for years.