<\/p>\n
You can also listen to this podcast on iono.fm here.<\/p>\n
SIMON BROWN: I\u2019m chatting now with Chanal Subramoney, senior group compliance manager at Yellow Card. Chanal, I appreciate the early morning time. In many ways, 2025 really was a year of inflection for stablecoins.<\/p>\n
We had the Genius [Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins] Act passed in \u2026 We\u2019ve seen the likes of Visa, JP Morgan and even Swift getting involved or in the process of doing so, and significant volumes going through. There really are real world uses and 2025 kind of proved this for us.<\/p>\n
CHANAL SUBRAMONEY: Yes, Simon, thank you so much for having me. What you\u2019ve just said speaks volumes. Stablecoin adoption is actually increasing, and I\u2019m not even referring to crypto firms. I\u2019m referring to these traditional finance giants, the likes of Visa that you\u2019ve mentioned. They are using stablecoins for payment settlements now.<\/p>\n
Looking at Swift, they have long been the primary vehicle for effecting correspondent banking payments. And now they are beginning to build this infrastructure into their existing financial reels.<\/p>\n
Read\/Listen:
What if South Africa\u2019s access to SWIFT is threatened?
Yellow Card, Visa agree to hasten stablecoin adoption in Africa
Visa, Mastercard race to tame a $253bn crypto threat
Africa\u2019s next payments leap: Stablecoins on every corner<\/p>\n
SIMON BROWN: It really is so. That\u2019s just it. It\u2019s sort of entering the traditional global financial systems. A lot of this is around inefficiencies that exist, particularly in cross-border payments, and the slow settlements, the fees, the volatilities. The point here is this is not around speculating with these stablecoins. This is just around making transactions easier.<\/p>\n
CHANAL SUBRAMONEY: 100%. To me this signifies solid evidence of a structural realignment within these traditional financial institutions because these are deliberate infrastructure decisions that they\u2019re making.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s within these organisations \u2013 they\u2019ve been submerged in these rigorous risk-governance frameworks. They\u2019ve had regulatory relationships that spanned decades, and they don\u2019t usually tolerate, like you\u2019re saying, these speculative risk exposures.<\/p>\n
SIMON BROWN: I take your point on that. This is doing it. We have regulation. So Africa is a little bit behind but it\u2019s coming. We have the infrastructure. There is compliance and the trust involved.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t a sort of fly-by-night. This is the real thing that\u2019s happening in businesses\u2019 implementing.<\/p>\n
CHANAL SUBRAMONEY: Absolutely. Touching on the policies, our local regulators, there\u2019s a lot happening. There\u2019s a lot of shift happening in terms of policies being formulated or even revised to incorporate the stablecoin adoption.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve got Excon [exchange control] regulations coming soon, the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework that\u2019s just gone live this month for our tax obligations. And then our local regulators are also incorporating specific stablecoin regulations as well. So it\u2019s an exciting space to be in.<\/p>\n
SIMON BROWN: And for business in particular and obviously big, mid and small business. This isn\u2019t around saying, well, \u2018We will replace banks\u2019. This is around having plans and strategies in place that bring stablecoins into your process and into your business.<\/p>\n
Read:
Absa\u2019s bold leap into stablecoins
Stablecoins are gaining ground as digital currency in Africa
Why Africans are falling in love with US dollar stablecoins<\/p>\n
CHANAL SUBRAMONEY: 100%. Your stablecoin strategy \u2013 I\u2019m going to say this very brashly \u2013 is that if businesses don\u2019t adopt or even haven\u2019t considered developing a stablecoin strategy, they are accumulating what I like to call \u2018optionality risk\u2019 in silence by not acting now, because the strategy, if you\u2019re not going to implement it, is going to cost you.<\/p>\n
There are a lot of things you need to consider in the strategy. For example, whom do you choose to partner with in terms of on-and-off ramping the fiat and the stablecoins? Which jurisdictions do you want to operate in \u2013 and do those partners operate in those jurisdictions to create operational efficiency for your businesses?<\/p>\n
And then you\u2019ve got to also think about enhancing your existing compliance frameworks for stablecoin adoption.<\/p>\n
So, to stall these kinds of decisions can be critical and can be very expensive, Simon.<\/p>\n
SIMON BROWN: I get your point. Doing nothing is not just going to sort of go away. It is just going to continue and leave you behind \u2013 for many of the institutions. This is, I imagine, quite complex. I can\u2019t imagine when last we sort of onboarded a new currency, which is technically what we\u2019re kind of doing here. There is complexity. Your point is, don\u2019t put your head in the sand because it\u2019s not going away.<\/p>\n
CHANAL SUBRAMONEY: Yes, absolutely. It is not going away. With the move of these traditional finance giants, they are actually shifting economic behaviour. Cross-border payments historically were inefficient. You mentioned earlier that they are slow settlement windows [with] high correspondent banking fees.<\/p>\n
What we like to analyse in terms of this situation is \u2013 let\u2019s look at a practical example. Your company is doing business in 10 different countries. Your capital is what we like to call \u2018trapped capital\u2019 because the liquidity is siloed in these 10 different local banks, for example. And then the funds could be sitting in different currencies.<\/p>\n
Read: This is the best time in years to buy USD<\/p>\n
Now stablecoins allow your business to maintain a single global liquidity pool on chain. So instead of prefunding multiple accounts to handle local payments, you can have a Treasury team that can hold a central reserve of USD-backed stablecoins, and then you can deploy them to any market instantly, as and when you need.<\/p>\n
SIMON BROWN: It actually ends up making your Treasury team significantly more efficient as a result. I hadn\u2019t thought of that. That\u2019s a brilliant example.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll leave it there. Chanel Subramoney, group senior compliance manager at Yellow Card, I appreciate the time this morning.<\/p>\n
Listen to the full MoneywebNOW podcast every weekday morning here.<\/p>\n
#Dont #put #sand #Stablecoin #adoption<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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