American Banker Report: Setting the Stage for Tokenized Money

A joint study by Finzly and American Banker (Arizent), conducted in Feb 2026 among 100+ banks, credit unions, and neobanks actively exploring on-chain technology, highlights a clear shift in financial services architecture. The industry is moving beyond optimizing payment execution toward unifying money movement, accounting, and liquidity management on a single platform.

Report findings:

80% are moving to a unified money platform

• 80% of institutions are converging on platforms that support both tokenized and fiat money
• Priority is a single operational + accounting layer, not isolated payment rails
• Strong demand for a real-time, unified ledger as the system of record

This signals a move away from fragmented stacks toward integrated infrastructure that can natively handle multiple forms of money.

Tokenization requires real-time ledgering + orchestration

If tokenized deposits are the ‘what,’ then real-time ledgering and payment orchestration are the ‘how’.

Dean Nolan, Head of Payments Strategy, Finzly

The research makes clear: tokenized money is only viable at scale when supported by:

• Real-time ledgering across all accounts and assets
• Payment orchestration across rails (ACH, RTP, FedNow, wires, cards, on-chain)
• Atomic processing of transactions, balances, and settlement
• Interoperability between fiat systems and digital value

Actionable insights for every stakeholder

• Anchors tokenized money strategy in real-world infrastructure requirements relevant to business, technology, and operations leaders
• Establishes why ledger modernization is a core strategic priority, not just a technical upgrade
• Connects innovation teams, product leaders, and executives by bridging the gap between on-chain experimentation and production-scale deployment
• Provides data-backed direction on where institutions are investing