Pilot cryptocurrency token testing forced Citigroup to ditch the plans to launch its own crypto coin, Coindesk reports, citing Gulru Atak, bank’s global head of innovation for treasury and trade solutions.
The top management of the bank studied the results of the tests and concluded that the existing technological solutions provided by SWIFT exceed the digital token capabilities in cross-border settlements.
According to Atak, the bank is focused on using effective methods with quick impact to improve cross-border payments. They want to see the changes today rather than invest time and efforts into future technology.
This decision comes after two major banks announced the development of their proprietary stablecoins. Thus, JP Morgan will have its JPM Coin, available only for banks customers and used to facilitated bank’s cross-morder transactions. Mizuho Bank is looking into yen-pegged stablecoin.
It is worth mentioning that Citibank started to think about cryptocurrency back in 2015; however, the bank has never officially announced the creation of Citicoin and never presented demo samples.
In September 2018 Citigroup announced the plans to issue the receipts on digital assets that will allow the bank’s clients to trade cryptocurrencies without actually owning them.
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