Banking Circle widened its presence in Asia Pacific after receiving a Major Payment Institution licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in October 2025. The licence formalised Singapore as the bank’s regional hub and provided regulatory certainty to institutions using supervised cross-border payment services. Kirit Bhatia, chief digital assets officer, said organisations across the region continued to face delays, complex routing and inconsistent settlement outcomes when moving funds internationally. “When you move money, trust, security and compliance are the foundations. Being licensed by tier-one regulators proves you have met a very high bar, and that is essential for the institutions that rely on us,” he said. The licence enabled Banking Circle to establish direct settlement channels that reduce friction and create a single regulated route for cross-border payments.

Banking Circle is a Luxembourg-regulated bank that connects financial institutions directly to domestic and international payment systems. Bhatia said traditional cross-border processes still involve slow settlement cycles, pre-funding requirements and operational complexity, and that the bank built a single application programming interface (API) for multi-currency payments while managing the underlying connectivity. The platform brings settlement, messaging and connectivity together through one interface and reports a 99.9% straight-through processing rate. It also supports tokenised money, defined as regulated digital representations of money. Bhatia said activity in this area remains limited and that the bank uses automated processes and programmable rules to ensure consistent execution. “We built the platform to simplify how money moves while maintaining strong standards on regulation, security and trust,” he said.

The bank expanded it's regional reach with the acquisition of Australian Settlements Limited (ASL) in August 2025. The acquisition gave the bank direct access to Australia’s domestic payment schemes, including the New Payments Platform (NPP), the country’s real-time payments infrastructure; the Bulk Electronic Clearing System (BECS), Australia’s batch clearing system; PayID for alias-based account addressing; PayTo for pre-authorised account-to-account payments; and BPAY, a widely used bill-payment network. Singapore will serve as its regional headquarters, with its Australian subsidiary forming the second operational hub for Asia Pacific. Bhatia said client demand guides decisions on where the bank establishes direct connectivity. “When we join a domestic system, we shorten payment flows, improve settlement predictability and support liquidity and treasury planning for clients active across the region,” he said.

Direct connectivity reshapes cross-border payments

Bhatia said Banking Circle will extend its infrastructure to support digital forms of fiat assets, including stablecoins  and tokenised deposits. The design would mirror the model used in its real-time payments platform, where payment, messaging and settlement operate within a single workflow that embeds compliance and automation. “The payment, the message and the settlement all happen at once, and that allows institutions to scale while maintaining operational safeguards,” he said. He added that tokenised deposits remain in exploratory stages globally, with adoption shaped by regulatory conditions and institutional priorities.

Direct links to domestic and international clearing systems form a core part of the bank’s strategy. Banking Circle connects to the United Kingdom’s Faster Payments Service, Europe’s Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) Instant, Australia's NPP and instant payment schemes in the Nordics. The bank said these links improve transfer speed and transparency, while cross-border performance depends on how domestic systems interoperate. Clients access the infrastructure through a single API that connects to multiple payment systems, while the bank manages connectivity, reconciliation and compliance. “From our customers’ perspective, it is that single integration. They can move money seamlessly 24/7 while we manage the wiring underneath,” said Bhatia. He added that many banks are still testing proofs-of-concept for digital asset settlement and that large-scale production deployments remain limited.

Building programmable infrastructure for emerging forms of money

Banking Circle supports tokenised finance through its euro stablecoin, EURI, launched in August 2024 as the first bank-issued stablecoin  in Europe  compliant with the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework. “We wanted to show that a highly regulated bank can operate on public chains and still meet the highest levels of compliance, trust and security,” Bhatia said. Programmable functions allow automatic execution on blockchain networks, andinstitutions are testing these capabilities in controlled environments.

Bhatia said the bank will expand its infrastructure to support emerging forms of digital money, including central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), stablecoins and tokenised deposits, so clients can transact across these formats through a single API and a consistent compliance framework. This will be enabled by the bank’s abstraction model, which conceals technical differences between systems while Banking Circle manages orchestration.  Institutions have begun to test automated workflows such as coupon distribution and machine-to-machine transactions, and that these early trials require strong operational controls.

Digital assets shift institutional payments

Banking Circle’s expansion reflects a broader shift in institutional payments as banks explore how blockchain, tokenisation and stablecoins can support treasury and settlement functions. Institutions are building links to both domestic clearing systems and emerging digital asset networks, signalling a move toward hybrid models rather than wholesale system replacement. Adoption across Asia Pacific varies widely, shaped by regulatory readiness, market infrastructure and central bank priorities. In Europe, the MiCA provides one of the first comprehensive regulatory regimes for digital assets, and EURI positions the bank within this supervised environment. Regional partnerships indicate that regulated tokenised settlement models are progressing from conceptual design into controlled operational trials.

Banks including DBS, OCBC and HSBC have piloted tokenised deposits, tokenised trade instruments and on-chain settlement workflows with corporate clients. These initiatives reflect a measured progression from proofs-of-concept to selective production use, with  focus on auditability, controls and integration with established fiat payment systems. The emerging trajectory suggests digital assets will operate alongside existing rails as institutions pursue efficiency while maintaining compliance and resilience. As the market evaluates how programmable money and tokenised assets can be incorporated into cross-border payment models, Banking Circle’s work illustrates how regulated institutions are test and deploy these capabilities under supervisory expectations.