BNY Explores Blockchain Payments Using Tokenized Deposits

Bank of New York Mellon is reportedly exploring tokenized deposits as a way to enable its clients to make payments using blockchain.

The bank is considering this technology as it modernizes its infrastructure, including that of its treasury services business that handles $2.5 trillion worth of payments per day, Bloomberg reported Tuesday (Oct. 7), citing its interview with Carl Slabicki, executive platform owner for Treasury Services at BNY.

Slabicki told Bloomberg that tokenized deposits could help “banks overcome legacy technology constraints, making it easier to move deposits and payments across their own ecosystems — and eventually, across the broader market as standards mature.”

BNY launched another tokenization project in July, saying it was collaborating with Goldman Sachs to use that bank’s blockchain technology to maintain a record of customers’ ownership of select money market funds.

The companies said at the time in a press release that the project is “a significant step towards enhancing the utility and transferability of existing MMF shares.”

PYMNTS reported in September 2024 that tokenized deposits exist as digital holdings that are in fact fiat currency, not merely backed by fiat like stablecoins.

At that time, a far-flung roster of monetary authorities, banking consortiums and banks had announced pilots and other programs aimed at testing the real-world application of those deposits that settle in central bank money.

JPMorgan Chase said in June that it planned to launch a product called a “deposit token” that will serve as a digital representation of commercial bank money and will be available only to the bank’s institutional clients.

The tokens, known as JPMD, are minted by JPMorgan and transmitted to participating institutional clients via smart contract transactions on the Base public blockchain.

HSBC said in September that it expanded its tokenized deposit service to include cross-border transactions for corporate clients and that it conducted its first U.S. dollar cross-border transactions earlier that month between Hong Kong and Singapore.

The bank launched its TDS for domestic payments in Hong Kong and Singapore earlier this year and then expanded it to the United Kingdom and Luxembourg markets, supporting domestic payments in additional currencies.