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Guest insight from Olaf Ransome on UNITE Global FMI and a “single pool of liquidity” vision to reduce nostro reliance, cut buffers and enable real-time PvP/DvP.

Whether you are in FX, equities, or even crypto, you have to settle trades and make payments. That world is complex and fragmented. And the complexity keeps growing as we add new forms of future money: Stablecoins, tokenised deposits, Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and e-money. All of those are niches which we have to manage. This article focuses on how you can fine tune your processes to best manage the scarce resource that is intraday liquidity.

Olaf Ransome’s latest article on liquidity management explores PORTS (Perpetual Overnight Rate Treasury Securities) and how they could expand the supply of on-chain high-quality liquid assets (HQLA) for treasury and cash management. He explains why long cash balances create risk, how stablecoins and tokenised money market funds need safe short-duration assets, and what PORTS could mean for reverse repo, liquidity management and wholesale banking.

Discover how SIKA’s CCP-based FX platform streamlines EM FX order matching and settlement, reduces credit risk and prepares banks and brokers for stablecoin rails.

Olaf Ransome explores how stablecoins offer faster, 24/7 payments and banking access where traditional rails fall short, with insights from industry experts: 6 reasons Stablecoins beat traditional payments

JPMorgan is breaking new ground with the launch of JPMD – a “public-permissioned” stablecoin-like token that combines the interoperability and 24/7 settlement of a public blockchain with the regulatory controls and credit backing of a traditional bank deposit. In this post, Olaf Ransome revisits his long‑held view that tokenized deposits only work “inside the four walls” of their issuer, explains why JPMD’s hybrid model changes the game, and explores its far‑reaching implications for institutional liquidity, payment rails and the future of financial services.

“Let’s get together!” Big US banks and infrastructure providers are apparently looking at a common stablecoin. How should you think about this and what should you think?

Stablecoins, tariffs and the papal conclave have an oligopoly on the news headlines right now. Simon Taylor, who is one of those who I think really gets the FinTech space and its impact on financial services just posted: “Stripe just declared war on banks with their stablecoin financial accounts.” That alone is worth a read. I want to explain where banks will struggle with processing Stablecoins. And I’ll throw in a few words on things Tokenised Deposits too for free.

Around things digital assets we have huge momentum. Who is going to win? To understand where we might be headed, I caught up with somebody who thinks about things crypto aka digital assets for a living. Kenny Hearn, the Chief Investment Officer at SwissOne Capital, a specialist asset management company with a focus on institutional grade crypto and blockchain investment funds. Kenny spends his time thinking about who the winners and losers are going to be. He shared his thoughts on what he sees as the differentiators, and just as importantly his view on what is important for institutional investments to be made. This is not investment advice, just a view on how the digital asset space will develop. If you do want investment advice, feel free to contact Kenny.

Money Markets are a cornerstone of day-to-day cash aka liquidity management for both financial institutions and corporate treasuries; we need those instruments to fine tune what we do. And things are changing post the “run-on-the-bank 21st century version” which hit Silicon Valley Bank & Credit Suisse. So, understanding what is changing helps us make the most out of the necessity of optimising what we do around cash management. To gain some insight on the latest market developments, I spoke to Hugh MacMillen from iIxNotes. Hugh is a long-time Money Markets guy who has a passion for developing new products and marketplaces.

What good are stablecoins? The news, or at least my news, is that they are starting to be used beyond the world of crypto for things we normally associate with money; a store of value, a medium of exchange and a means of payment. The new is converging with old. In this month’s post I shed some light on how stablecoins are being used like money and why this might matter to you as an individual or as a business.

In financial services, tomorrow’s world is all about digital assets. Stablecoins are a new way to hold a cash balance, but they don’t pay interest. Until now.

Recently, something of real note happened. Berlin Hyp issued a native digital bond and settled it with “old fashioned” money in Target 2, the Euro Systems payment platform. Interoperability was the magic ingredient in this transaction. Wonderful progress. I like to say that interoperability enables connectivity between the three key parts of tomorrow’s infrastructure, which I have dubbed the Holy Trinity: Marketplaces, Asset Custody and the Means of Payment.

These things are all the rage, so it is worth spending a little time to understand what they are, how they work and what the implications are for your business. If you are in treasury or transaction banking, or trading, I’d offer the view that having some insight and a view on this is essential.

On the MMF front, I’d like to share a couple of things. First, what I learnt watching a recent episode of the Security Token Show, which featured an interview with Archax CEO Graham Rodford and second what I think this means.

This is the first edition of a monthly column on things liquidity. I am going to focus on the plumbing part of liquidity; how to make sure we have enough money and securities in the right currency, in the right place and at the right time to settle trades and make payments. Please do share your views and do ask questions. I’ll try to offer you some help either directly or in a future post.