Global banks commit $270M to stablecoin venture targeting 2027 launch

A consortium of 21 financial institutions has committed about $270 million in funding to a stablecoin initiative known as Project Faro. The project, backed by big banks, aims to act as a stablecoin issuer and launch a US dollar stablecoin in the first half of 2027.According to Bloomberg, the funding is intended to cover five years of operations for the new company, which plans to issue stablecoins pegged to the currencies of all G7 countries, with a euro-backed coin expected to follow the dollar launch.The group first announced the initiative in September. While confirmed details are thin, people familiar with the matter said the company is expected to be incorporated in the US, Bloomberg reported. The group includes banks such as Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Banco Santander, Deutsche Bank and BBVA. Similar initiatives are also underway, including Stripe-led Open USD, which counts Visa among its founding partners, and Qivalis, a European banking consortium seeking to challenge the dominance of US dollar-pegged stablecoins.Overlap with rival consortiumsBBVA is one of several Faro members also involved in competing stablecoin initiatives, including Open USD and Qivalis. Dutch lender Rab...