The 2025 Singapore FinTech Festival highlighted a decisive shift in the global financial landscape. Stablecoins, tokenised deposits, programmable payments, and real-time settlement infrastructure dominated discussions across regulators, banks, and technology firms. What began as exploratory innovation is now shaping the strategic agenda for transaction banking across Asia.
Japan, with an updated regulatory framework and ongoing pilots led by major financial institutions, is positioning itself as one of the first advanced markets to operationalise bank-issued stablecoins. As this transformation accelerates, transaction banking teams will require new capabilities, new organisational structures, and entirely new roles. The future talent profile for corporate and transaction banking will look very different from what exists today.
Stablecoins & Tokenisation: The Structural Shift
Stablecoins are digital currencies backed 1:1 by fiat assets, designed specifically for payments and settlement. They enable instantaneous and continuous transfer of value without reliance on batch processing or correspondent networks. This creates operational advantages for liquidity management, cross-border transactions, corporate treasury workflows, and trade settlement. Tokenisation expands these capabilities by converting assets—such as invoices, deposits, guarantees, securities, or trade documents—into digital tokens that flow seamlessly across platforms. When tokenised assets settle using stablecoins or tokenised deposits, the end-to-end process becomes digital, interoperable, and highly efficient.
Japan’s regulatory environment now permits banks and licensed entities to issue fully backed stablecoins under the revised Payment Services Act. Major banks, including MUFG, SMBC, and Mizuho, are conducting pilots that combine tokenisation platforms with digital settlement rails. This places Japan among the most advanced jurisdictions in regulated stablecoin development.
Impact on Japan’s Existing Settlement Infrastructure
A central question is how stablecoins will interact with existing domestic settlement systems, particularly the Zengin System.
Zengin remains the backbone of Japan’s interbank credit transfers, providing reliable and widely adopted payment processing. However, it relies on legacy messaging structures, scheduled clearing windows, and operational constraints that do not align with the 24/7, real-time capabilities demanded by global digital commerce.
Stablecoins function on fundamentally different principles: immediate finality, continuous operation, and programmable transaction logic. These attributes offer clear benefits for corporate cash management, working capital optimisation, and supply-chain financing. Rather than replacing Zengin, stablecoins are expected to coexist across a hybrid architecture:
- BOJ-NET provides real-time gross settlement for large-value payments
- stablecoins introduce a digital layer for instant, programmable corporate settlement
- Zengin continues to anchor domestic credit transfers
This configuration positions stablecoins as a catalyst for modernising Japan’s payment ecosystem. Their introduction supports ongoing industry initiatives aimed at extended service hours, modular settlement capabilities, and interoperability across domestic and cross-border platforms.
How Transaction Banking Operations Will Transform
The introduction of stablecoins and tokenised infrastructure will reshape the internal design of transaction banking. Banks will shift from offering individual products—payments, liquidity, trade—to delivering integrated digital settlement ecosystems.
Key operational changes include:
- real time domestic and cross-border payment capability
- continuous intraday liquidity visibility across global subsidiaries
- automated trade-finance workflows using tokenised documents
- programmable payment logic for corporate credit
- integration of cash, trade and FX via shared digital platforms
- enhanced compliance through traceable, on-chain settlement data
These changes will require new specialist knowledge, new digital infrastructure, and new organisational models inside banks.
The New Roles Emerging in Transaction Banking
As Japan transitions into a stablecoin-enabled financial environment, several new roles will become essential. These positions reflect the convergence of transaction banking, digital assets, technology, and regulation.
Stablecoin Product Owner: Leads the design and management of a bank-issued stablecoin, overseeing governance, reserve structure, integration with corporate systems, and compliance.
Digital Treasury Solutions Lead Supports corporate clients adopting digital settlement methods, connecting stablecoin capabilities with liquidity optimisation and real-time treasury management.
Cross-Border Digital Payments Architect Builds and maintains stablecoin corridors across Asia, integrating FX, treasury, and settlement infrastructure.
Tokenised Payments & Trade Product Manager Develops products combining tokenised invoices, letters of credit, and supply-chain assets with instant settlement capabilities.
Stablecoin Treasury & Reserves Manager Manages the reserve backing of the stablecoin, ensuring liquidity, peg stability, and operational resilience.
Stablecoin Regulatory Specialist Interprets regulatory frameworks, manages licensing, and establishes compliance standards for stablecoin issuance and settlement.
DLT Integration Engineer Integrates distributed-ledger infrastructure with core banking systems, enabling minting, burning, settlement flows, and wallet security.
Digital Asset Risk Manager Oversees risk exposure across digital assets, including operational risk, technology risk, liquidity risk, and smart-contract vulnerabilities.
These positions represent a significant evolution of the transaction banking talent landscape. Future teams will require hybrid expertise across payments, liquidity, technology, digital assets, and regulatory integration.
Implications for Workforce and Hiring in Japan
As stablecoin adoption expands, the demand for specialised talent in Japan’s corporate and transaction banking sector will increase substantially. Institutions will need:
• product specialists capable of bridging traditional payment systems with tokenised infrastructure
• engineers with experience in distributed ledgers and digital settlement platforms
• regulatory experts familiar with digital-asset frameworks
• treasury professionals comfortable with real-time liquidity and programmable settlement
• risk managers trained in smart-contract and digital-asset risk models
Banks that adapt early will be better positioned to lead the next phase of transaction banking modernization. Those that delay may face structural talent shortages as demand for hybrid expertise grows across both financial institutions and emerging digital-asset companies. Japan’s stablecoin initiatives mark a significant turning point for the industry. They will not only transform how corporate banking operates, but also redefine the skills and structures required within transaction banking teams
The Banking Insider 