Shinhan Financial partners with Visa to build stablecoin and AI payment infrastructure

South Korea's Shinhan Financial Group has signed a strategic agreement with Visa to build stablecoin and AI-powered payment infrastructure. Under the August 24, 2026 agreement, Shinhan will utilize Visa's enterprise stablecoin platform to test the issuance, remittance, and redemption of stablecoins, marking a first for a top-tier South Korean financial institution. The initiative, which involves major subsidiaries like Shinhan Bank and Shinhan Card, will also explore card payment settlements, AI payment models, and B2B expansion. This partnership builds on Shinhan's prior blockchain trials with Solana and comes as South Korea drafts its Digital Asset Basic Act.

Shinhan-Visa stablecoin infrastructure partnership

• ▪The partnership marks the first time a top-tier South Korean financial group has formally adopted Visa's enterprise stablecoin infrastructure to test a domestic settlement stack.
• ▪Shinhan Financial Group will utilize Visa's enterprise stablecoin platform, launched in July 2026, to verify core functions including the issuance, remittance, and redemption of stablecoins.
• ▪Shinhan Financial Group plans to integrate stablecoins into joint pilot projects with Visa involving card payment settlements.
• ▪Shinhan Financial Group signed a strategic memorandum of understanding with Visa on August 24, 2026, to collaborate on stablecoins, artificial intelligence, and B2B payments.
• ▪Shinhan Financial Group will involve its major subsidiaries, including Shinhan Bank, Shinhan Card, and Jeju Bank, in the collaborative initiatives with Visa.

AI-powered payment models

• ▪Shinhan Financial Group and Visa plan to expand business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-customer (B2C) payment businesses by combining their technologies and payment infrastructure.
• ▪The collaboration aims to combine Shinhan Financial Group's financial capabilities with Visa's global infrastructure to design new future finance models.

B2B payment expansion

• ▪Visa previously tested stablecoin settlement on the Canton Network using Brale's SBC stablecoin to evaluate privacy controls for financial institutions.
• ▪In April 2026, Shinhan Card partnered with the Solana Foundation to trial stablecoin payment systems on the Solana Layer 1 blockchain.

Shinhan's prior Solana tests

• ▪South Korea is advancing the Digital Asset Basic Act, a broad regulatory framework covering stablecoins, virtual asset service provider licensing, and cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds.
• ▪Shinhan Financial Group and Standard Chartered's SC Ventures invested $10 million in Digital Asset, the developer of the Canton Network, in July 2026.
• ▪In August 2026, Shinhan's asset management division signed a four-party agreement with the Solana Foundation, Etherfuse, and Orca to test a Korean won-denominated tokenized fund.