Goldman and Citi back reported $270m bank stablecoin venture

Goldman Sachs, Citi, Santander and Deutsche Bank are among the firms that have committed around $270m to a joint stablecoin venture, Bloomberg reported on 10 November. The report describes funding intended to cover five years of the new company’s operations.

The venture, known as Project Faro, builds on a consortium of 21 financial institutions. Their joint announcement in September set a target of bringing a dollar-denominated stablecoin to market in the first half of 2027. A stablecoin is a digital token designed to maintain a fixed value against a currency.

The reported money funds five years of operations

Bloomberg’s $270m figure describes the backers’ commitments to finance the issuer’s operations. Its report names the four banks among the participating firms and says the company is expected to be incorporated in the United States, citing people familiar with the plans.

Operating capital supports the company building and running the product. Separately, a reserve-backed stablecoin needs assets supporting the tokens in circulation and their redemption. The consortium’s earlier exploratory plan described digital money backed one-to-one by reserves and available on public blockchains.

Twenty-one institutions are behind the plan

The consortium’s September announcement lists 21 financial institutions across North America, Europe, East Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Alongside Goldman Sachs and Citi, participants include Bank of America, Wells Fargo, UBS, MUFG Bank, Fidelity Investments and WisdomTree.

The group said it would establish a company in the second half of 2026, subject to closing conditions. Its proposed product would serve wholesale, institutional and retail markets, including cross-border payments and the settlement of digital assets.

Those are the uses the banks intend to pursue. The first commercial milestone in their published plan is the dollar token’s targeted launch in the first half of 2027.

A euro token is the next currency priority

The consortium plans to begin with dollars and expand into other G7 currencies, prioritising a euro-denominated offering. Its announcement sets out an intention to comply with the US GENIUS Act and the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, as applicable.

The banks are pooling an issuer’s operating resources, distribution and governance around a shared product. For customers, the proposed use is a reserve-backed digital payment asset that can move between participants and support settlement outside the workflow of a conventional bank transfer.

The consortium plans to combine its members’ distribution, governance, compliance and institutional risk-management capabilities in one issuer. Its published plan identifies cross-border payments and digital-asset settlement as use cases.