Japan's Three Megabanks Complete Joint Stablecoin and Cross-Border Payments PoC
Key points
- SMBC, Mizuho Bank, MUFG Bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation, and TISI Inc. ran a joint stablecoin PoC from 17 to 23 July 2026, backed by the FSA Japan's FinTech PoC Hub approval granted in November 2025.
- Stablecoins were structured as specified trust receivable rights under Article 2, Paragraph 9 of Japan's Payment Services Act, with three megabanks as joint principal trustees and Mitsubishi UFJ Trust as agent trustee.
- The cross-border payments use case was verified using real payment flows between Mitsubishi Corporation's domestic and overseas locations.
- The issuance design adopts a no-circulation-cap, trust-backed model with assets held in bank deposits, targeting large-scale deployment and broad reach via each bank's existing customer base.
- All three megabanks coordinating on a single issuance structure rather than pursuing separate schemes suggests the industry is converging on a shared infrastructure standard ahead of live rollout.
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), Mizuho Bank, MUFG Bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation, and technology firm TISI Inc. completed a joint proof-of-concept (PoC) between 17 and 23 July 2026, testing the co-issuance of a Japanese yen-denominated stablecoin and its application to cross-border payments. The exercise operated under the Financial Services Agency of Japan’s FinTech PoC Hub, which approved the initiative in November 2025. Stablecoins were issued as specified trust receivable rights under Article 2, Paragraph 9 of Japan’s Payment Services Act, with Mizuho, MUFG, and SMBC serving as joint principal trustees and Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation acting as agent trustee.
The PoC used Mitsubishi Corporation’s Japanese and overseas locations as the cross-border payment test case, verifying both technical feasibility and regulatory compliance measures across business operations, systems, and service design. SMBC supplied the blockchain platform, which TISI built, to all participating entities. The design assumes trust assets backed by bank deposits with no circulation cap, relying on verified-identity users for circulation control rather than a hard supply ceiling.
What the exercise signals is that Japan’s three megabanks are coordinating rather than competing on the underlying issuance infrastructure, likely to establish a shared standard before domestic or foreign competitors do. The joint-trustee structure threads existing Payment Services Act requirements without seeking new law, which shortens the path from PoC to live deployment. The open question is whether the parties will formalise a production entity and on what timeline, given that the PoC design is explicitly noted as subject to change.