On Oct. 3, Visa formally unveiled its Visa Tokenized Asset Platform (VTAP) to support stablecoins and tokenized deposits. Spanish bank BBVA plans to pilot a token on Ethereum starting in 2025.
Visa highlighted the potential to offer the service to its 15,000 banking network partners. “We’re excited to leverage our experience with tokenization to help banks integrate blockchain technologies into their operations,” said Vanessa Colella, Global Head of Innovation and Digital Partnerships, Visa.
The payment firm wants to make the process easier for banks by providing an API integration as a single point of access to multiple blockchains, both permissioned and permissionless. However, initially the platform supports a permissioned Ethereum compatible blockchain.
BBVA has already been testing the VTAP solution in a sandbox this year. That includes the basic functionality of issuance, transfer and redemption. But the Spanish bank is particularly interested in the programmability enabled through smart contracts. Visa highlighted the potential to automate workflows, provide complex credit lines or the most obvious application – conditional payments.
“This collaboration marks a significant milestone in our exploration of the potential of blockchain technology and will ultimately help enable us to broaden our banking services and expand the market with new financial solutions,” said Francisco Maroto, Head of Blockchain and Digital Assets, BBVA.
In 2018 and 2019 the Spanish bank ran a series of innovative pilots for blockchain bond issuance for which it won an award. It was also one of the first banks to offer crypto services to retail clients, albeit in the regulation friendly Switzerland. Meanwhile, earlier this year Visa ran a tokenized deposit test with HSBC and Hang Seng Bank in Hong Kong as part of the e-HKD pilots.
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