US Bank Demonstrates Cross-Border Payments with Its Own Stablecoin USBDC on Stellar

Remittances Between North American and European Group Companies, Connecting Banking Systems and Blockchain

US Bank (UK Bank) announced on September 9, 2026 (Wednesday) that it has completed a pilot for cross-border payments between its North American and European group companies using its own US dollar-backed stablecoin "USBDC" on the Stellar blockchain.

In this trial, not only was digital currency sent, but also the functions of existing banking systems, such as finance, risk management, and compliance, were connected to the public blockchain. It was verified whether banks could move digital assets across borders while maintaining traditional management systems.

Verification from Issuance to Redemption, Incorporating Stellar's Functions into Banking Operations

The pilot included a series of operational life cycles from the issuance, payment, redemption, freezing, to recovery of USBDC.

US Bank integrated blockchain transactions through its digital asset platform with existing finance, risk management, compliance, and operational systems. It also utilized Stellar's freezing and recovery functions to verify whether it could leverage public blockchain while maintaining the necessary management functions required in traditional banking.

The bank highlights Stellar's features of near-instant payments and transaction costs of less than one cent. Through its existing strategic relationship with the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), US Bank has been advancing the verification of issuing custom stablecoins on Stellar since at least November 2025.

Based on this trial, US Bank is considering the use of USBDC for cross-border fund management, liquidity management, on-chain collateral movement, and rapid payments between institutions in the future.

Commercialization Undecided, Expansion of Stablecoin Use by Banks

However, USBDC is not currently a stablecoin available to the general public. This transaction was also an internal pilot conducted between US Bank group companies, and details regarding the start date of commercial services, customer access, and issuance scale have not been disclosed.

Additionally, the legal entity issuing USBDC, details of the reserve assets, and who will be able to hold it in the future have not been announced, making it strongly positioned as a proof-of-concept to confirm infrastructure and operational capabilities at this stage.

On the other hand, US Bank established a digital asset and fund transfer division in October 2025, dealing with stablecoin issuance, cryptocurrency custody, asset tokenization, and digital fund transfers, making this pilot a move to materialize those efforts.

The banking industry as a whole is also expanding its movement towards the use of stablecoins. On September 1, 21 major financial institutions, including Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, and UBS, announced plans for a joint venture aimed at issuing stablecoins.

US Bank and SDF are expected to continue exploring additional uses for USBDC, and this trial marks a step towards incorporating public blockchain into actual cross-border payments while maintaining existing management functions of banks.

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