A new deposit token network, Cari, has signed up five US banks to help in the network design and testing. These include Huntington (assets $225bn), First Horizon (assets $84bn), M&T (assets $214bn), KeyCorp (assets $184bn) and Old National Bank (assets $72bn), as first reported by Bloomberg. The network plans to launch a minimum viable product in March and a pilot in the third quarter, with a view to launching by the end of the year.
The goal is for regional and community banks to provide similar functionality to stablecoins, but with deposit tokens mirroring conventional banking liabilities. Unlike stablecoins, the deposit tokens will carry FDIC insurance up to the usual limits and the onboarding and offboarding to conventional deposits will be seamless. A key goal is to enable 24/7 instant payments across the network.
The Cari Network was founded by Eugene Ludwig, a former Comptroller of the Currency during the Clinton administration. He also founded and led the Promontory Financial Group, the regulatory consulting firm acquired by IBM in 2016, from which Ludwig retired in 2021. Hence, he’s not short of banking contacts and relationships.
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