Global: Shinhan Partners Visa to Explore Stablecoin Payments and AI-Driven Finance

South Korea’s Shinhan Financial Group has entered into a memorandum of understanding with Visa to explore stablecoin-based payments and artificial intelligence-driven financial services.

The partnership will see Shinhan leverage Visa’s newly launched stablecoin platform to test key digital asset functions, including stablecoin issuance, transfers, remittances and redemption.

Visa introduced the platform in July as part of efforts to help financial institutions and other businesses manage stablecoin operations, including the minting, movement and settlement of digital currencies.

Under the new collaboration, Shinhan and Visa will evaluate the platform’s core capabilities while exploring potential applications of stablecoins within the financial group’s payment ecosystem.

The companies are also planning pilot programmes focused on using stablecoins for card payment settlement and cross-border transactions. Other areas of exploration will include artificial intelligence-based payment models as well as business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions.

The partnership brings together Visa’s global payments infrastructure and Shinhan’s banking, card and financial services capabilities as the financial sector continues to explore the potential of blockchain technology and digital assets.

Shinhan Financial Group is one of South Korea’s major financial conglomerates, with subsidiaries including Shinhan Bank, Shinhan Card and Jeju Bank. These entities are expected to participate in the stablecoin initiative as the group evaluates potential use cases across its financial ecosystem.

The collaboration reflects the growing interest among established financial institutions in stablecoins as a potential tool for improving payment settlement, remittances and other financial transactions.

For financial institutions, stablecoins could provide an additional digital mechanism for transferring value while potentially supporting faster settlement and greater interoperability across payment networks.

The companies’ exploration of AI-powered payment models also highlights the increasing convergence between digital assets and emerging technologies in financial services.

As financial institutions continue to experiment with programmable payments, artificial intelligence and blockchain-based infrastructure, partnerships between traditional financial groups and global payment networks could play a role in shaping new models for digital finance.

Jin Ok-dong, chairman of Shinhan Financial Group, said the partnership would combine the strengths of both organisations to develop new financial services and customer experiences.

“We will continue to combine Shinhan’s financial capabilities with Visa’s global infrastructure to design new financial models together and offer customers differentiated financial experiences.”

The proposed pilots are expected to provide the two companies with practical insights into how stablecoins and AI could be integrated into payment and financial service ecosystems, while assessing their potential for broader commercial applications.