Standard Chartered, Circle add USDC minting via bank rails

Standard Chartered and Circle launched a system that lets institutional clients mint and redeem the US dollar-backed stablecoin USDC through the bank’s onboarding and custody systems. The capability was announced Thursday and begins in the Dubai International Financial Centre.

Standard Chartered described itself as the first global systemically important bank to offer bank-led USDC minting and redemption. Clients can request issuance or redemption through the bank’s institutional platform instead of opening separate accounts with Circle.

Under the arrangement, the bank handles client onboarding, identity checks, compliance screening and custody, while Circle supplies the USDC tokens. The bank added that the setup integrates banking, custody and digital-asset services within its existing risk, compliance and governance frameworks.

Standard Chartered intends to expand the service to other jurisdictions as regulatory approval and client demand allow. The bank framed the launch as a response to institutional demand for regulated infrastructure that supports digital-asset operations.

The capability targets institutional workflows such as on-chain settlement, treasury operations and liquidity management, and could support payment-related uses in future. Embedding USDC access into the bank’s systems allows clients to mint and redeem tokens for operational needs without a separate relationship with the issuer, simplifying custody and compliance integration.

Roberto Hoornweg, CEO of corporate and investment banking at Standard Chartered, stated the goal is to bring established banking standards into digital-asset markets and enable wider institutional participation through controls and regulatory oversight.

Jeremy Allaire, Circle’s chief executive, noted competition between issuers and financial institutions over how stablecoins are distributed and accessed and said Circle works with projects including Open USD, expecting founding members to remain significant USDC partners and customers.

The Dubai rollout will serve as a testbed for the bank to scale the offering into other markets, subject to local rules and client uptake.