Tokenized deposits and stablecoins serve different purposes, requiring banks to decide where they need institutional control and where they need broader reach.

Real-time settlement can reduce funding and reconciliation demands while requiring new controls over transactions moving at greater speed.

AI agents will require banks to govern delegated authority, permissions and audit trails as machines begin initiating financial transactions.

Digital money is pushing banks toward making decisions about infrastructure well beyond whether to issue a token. Among the decisions that need to be made: Which forms of digital money belong inside their own relationships, which need broader distribution, how different networks connect and what controls must follow a transaction when money settles in real time.

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Jon Eisenstein, SVP, Product and global head of Digital Assets & Embedded Finance at FIS, traces the shift to three developments: convergence between decentralized and traditional finance, regulatory changes and better access to the infrastructure connecting them.

“There’s convergence,” Eisenstein told PYMNTS, citing DeFi technologies and use cases moving toward mainstream finance, along with “big changes in regulation,” and there is also the consideration of “the accessibility of the infrastructure itself.”

Customers once had to move between separate environments to access traditional bank assets and cryptocurrency or DeFi assets, setting up wallets and accounts outside their existing banking relationships. Eisenstein said those environments can now work together more readily. Investment in blockchains and bank connections has also improved their performance and control.

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