Fiserv Positions FIs For Digital Asset Adoptability

By Roy Urrico

Though 38% of consumers are aware of stablecoins, there is a larger lack of comprehension regarding how they actually function, according to recent research from Raddon, a Fiserv Company. Milwaukee-based Fiserv, a provider of payments and financial services technology, with two recent acquisitions and the launch of its own stablecoin, understands closing the cryptocurrency knowledge gap presents a key challenge for financial institution (FI) adoption, despite their growing interest in digital assets.

Cooper Thompson, vice president and head of innovation for embedded and digital assets at Fiserv.

Cooper Thompson, vice president and head of innovation for embedded and digital assets at Fiserv, sat down with Finopotamus to explain how Fiserv wants to offer a digital assets platform that will enable small and large financial institutions to play in the stablecoin space and to leverage those capabilities.

Thompson also covered:

• Why credit unions and bank must demystify stablecoins to build trust and grow their member/customer base.

• The kinds of educational resources that financial institutions should consider to build awareness.

• How growing awareness and trust are key steps to integrating digital assets as a mainstay in banking.

Fiserv’s Acquisitions and Stablecoin Launch

Thompon listed Fiserv’s embedded finance and digital assets space activity in the last year:

• March 2025: The acquisition of Payfare, an earned wage access (EWA) and instant payout provider.

• June 2025: the launch of FIUSD, a U.S. bank-friendly stablecoin designed to enhance digital asset services for FIs and merchants.

• Dec. 2025: The acquisition of StoneCastle Cash Management, expanding Fiserv’s ability to deliver insured deposit funding solutions, within the Fiserv ecosystem, including core account processing, digital banking, and payments platforms.

“I am quite involved with activity we've done in this space of embedded finance and digital assets, as well as working on new product design that leverages those capabilities in new and unique ways, said Thompson.

Centralized And Decentralized Ledgers

“Fiserv is one of the largest providers of centralized ledgers in the space, where there is a single trusted entity operating that ledger,” Thompson said. He noted Fiserv provides centralized ledgers in the form of core banking platforms for credit unions and banks, acquiring processing systems for merchants and payment networks connections. “They are high throughput, they're trusted, they're resilient. They've been proven in the industry for a very long period of time.”

Although often used interchangeably, a distributed ledger is not always completely decentralized. For decentralized ledgers, introduced in 2009, explained Thompson, “Rather than a centralized ledger where you have a single entity operating system, you have a distributed network of everybody operating and holding that ledger and everybody agreeing to the state of that ledger using a process called consensus. And so, Bitcoin introduced this. However, with Bitcoin, you have a lot of volatility baked into each transaction.”

Thompson explained this is great for peer-to-peer transactions but “kind of a slap in the face of financial institutions.” Plus, “your average consumer or your small business or your commercial customers are not going to get Bitcoin or use Bitcoin in the way it was originally intended to be used.”

Stablecoin Sets the Table

Thompson maintains that the introduction of stablecoin in 2014 to combat cryptocurrency volatility helped set the crypto table for FI entry. “One thing that sets stablecoins apart compared to cryptocurrencies is there is a fiat currency or a government backed currency that is used to collateralize the stablecoin.”

“Stablecoin gives you the utility of a government backed currency where you have common ground to stand on, there's no volatility baked into the transaction, but you have four key components of a decentralized ledger you can still lean on, which are 24/7 365 (days), movement, borderless transactions, decentralization, where you have a lot of resiliency baked into the network, and then programmability, ” said Thompson. Among the current stablecoins are USD₮/USDT issued by Tether; USDC issued by Circle; and USD (PYUSD), issued by Paxos and available to eligible PayPal users. The introduction of FIUSD represented a change where traditional financial institutions are integrating public, decentralized, and blockchains to improve efficiency.

“Before all of the regulatory changes last year where you had joint statements by the regulators, the OCC, Federal Reserve, and NCUA, and introduction of the GENIUS (Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins) Act (passed July 18, 2025), it was still the Wild West, emphasized Thompson.

“But given those introductions and the regulatory clarity coming out, it paved the way for regulated entities like financial institutions, like Fiserv, to get into the mix and use four key principles,” maintained Thompson, breaking down key tenants:

• 24/7/365 money movement. FIUSD runs on top of blockchains that operate around the clock, enabling movement of value anytime, anywhere. “But think about movement between credit unions that might be participating in a CUSO or they might be participating in a consortium effort where they can start to move funds between each other.”

• Borderless concept. Using blockchain’s unified ledger to move money seamlessly across boundaries. Stablecoins simplify cross-border payments by reducing intermediaries, cutting costs and speeding up settlement. “This means that financial institutions abroad can have exposure to the U.S. dollar without necessarily having to have a U.S. bank account.”

• Decentralization. Everybody can participate in the consensus of the ledger. “It empowers financial institutions small and large. Anybody can spin up a node and operate it and contribute to the consensus of the network. And they form that trust by participating in that network, rather than just kind of trusting a centralized entity to operate the ledger.”

• Programmability. Program payments to follow logic-based rules, such as holding funds in escrow and releasing them only when agreed conditions are met, or automating complex flows like streaming and splitting payments. “We've talked to financial institutions, title companies, or they might want additional escrow capabilities, or they want to be able to do programmatic loan draws for construction loans, rather than waiting for somebody in the back office to release the funds.”

“The killer use case right now is cross border, but when it comes to programmability, we're still waiting for that killer use case. But those four capabilities of decentralized ledgers are going to have an impact on financial institutions, in a very positive way,” said Thompson. “That is what we are looking to do at Fiserv.”

Turnkey Opportunity for FIs

“(Fiserv) is building out a digital assets platform that will be turnkey with our core banking systems. That way any financial institution, small and large, can plug into it,” said Thompson. He added that they are going to soon announce a set of pilot financial institutions “that range from small community banks to credit unions to large regional banks that are going to be able to plug into our system.”

Thompson explained the company is making it turnkey to take advantage of the fiat movement to collateralize the stablecoin by baking it into the product. “It sits inside your existing digital experiences. It provides open APIs (application programming interfaces). That way you if you have a different digital banking application, it can be integrated there. We are very much building it to sync with their existing core system to where customers can move from some kind of that deposit account directly into stable coin.”

That is why Fiserv acquired StoneCastle, explained Thompson, “where they're one of the largest deposit networks in the country…having a network of 1,100 financial institutions and (the capability) to distribute cash into insured deposit accounts throughout that network. “What we are going to be leveraging is that same kind of model as the collateral backing for FIUSD, which means that financial institutions are able to hold onto the deposits backing FIUSD, which is a very unique concept.”

Thompson continued, “The number one concern that we've heard in the industry is deposit flight for stablecoins” out of traditional banking accounts. What we're doing is bringing about a new capability that would allow financial institutions to participate in the reserves backing FIUSD instead of all those funds going into short term U.S. Treasurys, which does next to nothing for a credit union or a community bank.”

Although Fiserv works with about 10,000 FIs and six million merchants, according to Thompson, adoption is still very small. However, Fiserv’s priority use case currently is not POS payments. “The primary use case we're tackling is the cross-border use case first and then access to the digital assets economy.”

Thompson said Fiserv is also working with the Bank of North Dakota (BND), to launch the Roughrider Stablecoin. “We are working with (BND) for intra-financial institution money movement within the state of North Dakota using stablecoin and tokenized deposits. Then maybe eventually getting into more of the consumer day-to-day use case.”

Thompson suggested credit unions and banks familiarize themselves about cryptocurrency, centralized and decentralized ledgers, stablecoins, and how financial institutions can provide a new value proposition for members or customers. “Just try to absorb as much information as you can on the space.” Fiserv, he added, is doing its part by producing webinars, speaking at conferences, devoting a webpage to topic and “continuously building out content specifically about how financial institutions can play in the space.”