Regulations Mature as State-Owned Banks Accelerate Use-Case Review
Taiwan's stablecoin regulatory framework is gradually maturing, with state-owned banks actively deploying and reviewing potential application scenarios. Banks generally see stablecoins as offering real-time settlement, lower transfer costs, and 24-hour operation, while continuing to monitor regulatory progress by competent authorities and domestic and overseas market developments. The Virtual Asset Service Act and related sub-regulations are expected to take effect in Q1 next year, comprehensively governing virtual asset service providers and stablecoin businesses.
Bank of Taiwan Leads, Verifying With Retail Sector
In terms of pace, Bank of Taiwan has made the clearest progress. The bank said that to keep up with the trend toward tokenized finance, it has been studying both stablecoin and deposit tokenization businesses, hoping to play a driving role in this transformation. The bank explained that use cases are the most critical factor: technology and regulation have gradually matured, but whether new financial instruments can deliver value depends on whether they solve users' real needs.
Bank of Taiwan is currently working with large domestic retailers, with the retailers handling the retail-side application, to jointly verify the potential of fiat-pegged tokenized instruments such as stablecoins in retail scenarios, starting from real consumption situations to understand user needs and experience. The bank said it will continue exchanges with players in e-commerce, securities, technology and other sectors at home and abroad, exploring more diverse application scenarios for such tokenized instruments based on the actual needs of each industry.
First Bank, Hua Nan Bank and Taiwan Business Bank Engage VASPs
First Bank said it is currently evaluating from the perspectives of market demand, regulatory development, technical feasibility, risk management and business models, and exchanging with fintech firms and virtual asset service providers to understand market developments, technical architecture and potential cooperation models as references for assessing the feasibility of new services. Hua Nan Bank said its initial virtual-asset business strategy focuses on custody of reserve assets backing stablecoin issuance, as well as corporate stablecoin cross-border collection and payment operations, while also engaging virtual asset service providers and system vendors to steadily build a virtual-asset business model. Taiwan Business Bank said it has formed a dedicated research team studying stablecoin custody, transfer and exchange services, and has consulted technology providers and advisory firms with risk-control governance experience, and will, subject to compliance and risk control, focus on business scenarios leveraging banks' strengths and customer needs to develop virtual-asset payment, collection and custody services.
Land Bank, Taiwan Cooperative Bank and Changhua Bank Take Cautious Approach
Land Bank of Taiwan said it is actively participating in the financial consortium blockchain gold tokenization project, verifying the feasibility of applying blockchain to interbank transactions and clearing to improve asset allocation efficiency and reduce operating costs, while continuing to monitor innovative financial businesses such as stablecoins and virtual-asset custody, and will prudently study how and when to introduce new services once regulations are clear and risks are controllable. Taiwan Cooperative Bank said it continues to collect information on domestic and overseas developments in stablecoins, deposit tokenization and other virtual-asset businesses, and in line with the competent authority and the Bankers Association's deliberation process, is focusing on staff training, regulatory analysis, application scenarios and business model assessment, as well as potential risk-management issues. Changhua Bank said it views stablecoins and related technologies positively as helping improve the efficiency of payments, cross-border remittances and corporate fund management, and bringing new cooperation opportunities for banks and fintech firms, but actual applications must still address regulatory compliance, information security, anti-money laundering and customer rights protection, and confirm whether they can effectively meet customer needs; it is currently studying stablecoins and deposit tokens and conducting customer demand surveys as references for future development.