MUFG, Mizuho and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) have completed the first joint trial of a jointly issued yen stablecoin for cross-border payments, the banks announced on 16 October 2026.
MUFG’s announcement says the trial ran from 17 to 23 July 2026 inside a closed project supervised by Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA). The project was selected in November 2025 under the regulator’s FinTech PoC Hub and Payment Innovation Project. SMBC issued a parallel announcement of the same result.
A trust-based structure, three joint issuers
The stablecoin is structured as a specified trust beneficiary right under Japan’s Payment Services Act, with bank deposits as the underlying assets. The three banks act as joint settlors commissioning the issuance together, with Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation as trustee and TISI Inc. as technology provider.
The test case was cross-border settlement between Mitsubishi Corporation’s Japanese headquarters and its overseas offices. The participants verified the full cycle of issuance, transfer and redemption into fiat, and tested how multiple institutions coordinate on joint issuance, including anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing compliance.
Circulation in the pilot was limited to KYC-verified customers of the three banks, with no preset circulation cap.
What comes before real transactions
No live transactions have run yet. The banks say the next stage addresses governance, regulatory compliance, cybersecurity and system stability before commercial deployment, with real transactions targeted within fiscal 2026, the Japanese fiscal year running April 2026 to March 2027.
For FX traders, the significance is structural rather than immediate. A deposit-backed yen stablecoin issued jointly by the three banks that dominate Japan’s banking system would sit inside a supervised, bank-led regulatory perimeter, a contrast with the market-driven dollar stablecoin model. If the Payment Services Act trust structure holds at commercial scale, it becomes a template other Japanese issuers could copy, and a regulated settlement rail for yen-denominated cross-border corporate flows.
The banks first unveiled the plan in June 2026, when they announced a basic agreement and a joint council for governance and operations. The three are also pursuing related blockchain work through TradeWaltz, covering asset trading, ownership transfers and trade settlement.
