On the closing day of Sibos Frankfurt 2025, Ashutosh Kumar, head of global transaction banking for Asia Pacific at Mizuho, reflected on the week’s dominant themes: digital assets, tokenised deposits, stablecoins, AI, cybersecurity and the need for deeper collaboration between banks. He said these issues surfaced “in almost every discussion” with clients and partners and will shape transaction banking over the next five years. Digital assets and tokenised deposits Kumar observed that interest in digital assets has shifted from hype to concrete pilots. He noted “renewed interest in digital assets, stablecoins and tokenised deposits; that is something which has come up in almost every discussion.” Mizuho has already completed an internal proof of concept for a blockchain-based settlement of transactions between branches. This pilot helps the bank understand how distributed ledger technology can be used for liquidity management and real-time settlement across time zones. He stressed that tokenised deposits are particularly attractive for banks because they are backed by regulated bank money and preserve the banking model of deposit taking and lending. By contrast, stablecoins can raise valuation and volatility concerns. “One of the challenges we hear about stablecoins is valuation, especially when settlements have to happen on an atomic level,” he said. For Mizuho, tokenised deposits could combine the safety of traditional deposits with the programmability of digital assets. Cross-border payments and Swift’s shared digital ledger Kumar highlighted progress on conventional cross-border payments through Swift pilots that demonstrate faster transfers and improved transparency. Mizuho participates in Swift’s new shared digital ledger project, which “creates the infrastructure for moving money” but still requires industry agreement on “what underlying instrument or mechanism we are going to use to move the money.” He said collaboration with Swift and peer banks gives him optimism that perennial challenges of speed, transparency and cost can be overcome. “I am very optimistic, given what has happened across banks collaborating with Swift,” he said, adding that a common ledger could reduce the fragmentation and duplicated liquidity that plague today’s correspondent networks. Trade digitisation and interoperability Another theme Kumar emphasised was trade digitisation. He said there was “a lot more discussion on trade digitisation” at Sibos, particularly on interoperability. Drawing on his panel appearance, he explained that interoperability must work at three levels: for customers, who want to use different platforms seamlessly; for banks, which need to connect to multiple platforms through application programming interfaces (APIs) and standards; and for the ecosystem as a whole, so that platforms, customers and banks can exchange data and documents without friction. He welcomed the work of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Swift and other bodies on ISO standards for guarantees, but said “more work needs to happen” on bank-to-platform connectivity. In Asia, for example, each country still has its own platform for digital guarantees, making cross-border issuance cumbersome. Overcoming these silos will be key to digitising not just trade finance but the underlying trade flows themselves. Generative AI and internal productivity Kumar also spoke about Mizuho’s experiments with generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). The bank is running internal pilots for staff in Singapore and Japan to improve efficiency in tasks such as reporting, analysis and drafting. Early feedback has been positive, with staff “very happy” about the productivity gains. He sees potential for AI not just in internal productivity but also in payments fraud management, customer service and compliance automation. This reflects a broader trend at Sibos: banks are looking to harness AI responsibly to reduce costs, accelerate processes and extract insights from unstructured data while maintaining the “human in the loop” to preserve judgement and trust. Cybersecurity and collaborative corridors Kumar added that cybersecurity is a growing focus as banks open APIs and adopt new technologies. Mizuho is strengthening partnerships with technology providers and peer banks to share threat intelligence and align on standards, recognising that cyber risks do not stop at national borders. This fits his broader theme that transaction banking is “all about the network”: banks must link their strengths across regions to support clients entering new markets and supply-chain corridors. Collaboration to scale next-generation transaction banking Kumar’s remarks show Mizuho moving on two parallel tracks: modernising existing transaction banking systems and experimenting with tokenised deposits, blockchain and AI for the next phase of cross-border payments and trade finance. By participating in Swift’s shared digital ledger and focusing on interoperability standards, it aims to help build a truly global network effect rather than isolated pilots. He also underlined that competition and collaboration must co-exist. Mizuho wants to link its regional strengths with those of other banks and partners to deliver faster, safer and more connected services for customers. For Kumar, the goal is to turn the intense conversations at Sibos into practical partnerships that achieve the G20 objectives for cross-border payments and make digital trade a seamless reality.
