Lloyds Banking Group has reached a milestone in stablecoin settlement testing by completing a seven-day live pilot with Visa using USDC. The bank utilized the stablecoin to settle $750,000 in payment obligations, marking the first trial of its kind between Visa and a major UK banking group.
During the trial, Lloyds purchased the stablecoin through Archax, a UK-regulated digital asset exchange. The funds reached Visa in under an hour, including over weekends, compared to traditional cross-border settlement processes that typically take a day or more, particularly outside of standard banking hours.
Pilot Mechanics and Cross-Chain Setup
The pilot focused specifically on settlement—the behind-the-scenes process where institutions exchange funds to reconcile payment activity—rather than how payments are initially made. Lloyds booked the settlement volume through its Corporate Markets branch in Jersey, and the funds were transferred to Visa in the United States.
The trial also tested interoperability across private and public blockchain environments. Lloyds operated its own node on Canton, a network offering configurable privacy capabilities, while Visa supported settlement on a separate public blockchain. According to the participating firms, this cross-chain setup demonstrated how institutions can navigate multiple networks while maintaining operational flexibility.
Industry Outlook
Peter Left, Head of Digital Assets at Lloyds Banking Group, noted that testing live obligations allowed the teams to move beyond theory into a real-world setting. Rob Cameron, Group Country Manager for UK and Ireland at Visa, stated that stablecoins can operate alongside existing banking infrastructure and that Visa aims to make these forms of money practical, interoperable, and trusted at scale.
The pilot is part of Lloyds' broader initiative examining digital assets and tokenised money. The companies assessed how round-the-clock settlement can improve liquidity management and provide greater visibility and certainty regarding fund arrivals.
