Banks Weigh Profitable Roles in the Digital Currency Race
As digital money reshapes settlement and infrastructure, banks are examining where they can add value—and revenue—in an evolving payments landscape.
Nadia Hassan
North Africa Editor · Cairo
The accelerating shift toward digital forms of money is prompting banks to reassess their position in the payments ecosystem. As central bank digital currencies, tokenised deposits and stablecoins move from experiment to deployment, financial institutions are weighing how established roles in settlement, custody and infrastructure might translate into new revenue streams, according to industry discussion tracked by Finextra Research.
Why It Matters for the Africa–Europe Corridor
Cross-border flows between Europe and Africa remain a significant, cost-heavy segment of the global payments market, where remittances and trade settlement often carry high fees and slow clearing times. Digital currency infrastructure holds the potential to compress those frictions, offering faster settlement and lower intermediary costs. For banks operating along this corridor, the question is not only how to adapt to digital money, but how to remain central to transactions that could otherwise migrate to non-bank platforms or direct peer networks. Institutions that build reliable rails for digital settlement may find themselves better placed to serve both European financial centres and fast-growing African markets.
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