Thirty-nine state bankers associations announced yesterday the formation of BankChain Alliance, a consortium that plans to build an industry-owned blockchain network giving banks of all sizes access to emerging payment and settlement capabilities.
The alliance said the network will be industry-owned, industry-designed and industry-governed, and will be built on a common blockchain platform. Capabilities identified in the announcement include smart payment tools, tokenized deposits, stablecoins and automated settlement. The group said participating institutions will be able to offer those services while maintaining existing regulatory, security and trust standards.
Kathy Kraninger, president and CEO of the Florida Bankers Association and former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is serving as interim chair. “This is about banks of all sizes building their own future,” Kraninger said in a statement, describing the effort as an unprecedented collaboration representing thousands of banks that would let institutions in rural, urban and regional communities offer modern capabilities.
The alliance said it is running a selection process for a technology partner and is targeting a 2027 launch. It said the network will be interoperable with other networks and will invite ownership from banks across the country.
Several elements of the project remain undisclosed. The alliance has not said whether the network will operate as a public, private or permissioned distributed ledger, nor has it described a consensus mechanism, validator registration process, transaction capacity or cybersecurity design. Governance details including voting structures, ownership thresholds, funding commitments and conflict resolution procedures have not been published. No go-live date, testing schedule or list of participating banks has been released, and no pilot has been announced.
The announcement enters a market where other bank-led settlement projects are already underway. In June, The Clearing House announced a bank-led effort involving JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citi, BNY and Wells Fargo to integrate settlement of tokenized deposits with the RTP and CHIPS networks.
Tokenized deposits and stablecoins operate on different models. Tokenized deposits are issued by individual banks as liabilities on their own balance sheets. Stablecoins are separate tokens backed by assets held in reserve.
