Financial-software provider Finastra has partnered with crypto-payments firm Circle to let banks settle cross-border transactions in USDC, the dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by Circle. The integration will connect Circle’s blockchain-based settlement rail to Finastra’s Global PAYplus platform, which underpins a network responsible for more than $5 trillion in cross-border payments each day. Finastra Chief Executive Officer Chris Walters said the arrangement gives banks a way to shorten settlement times and reduce dependence on traditional correspondent banking chains while preserving existing foreign-exchange and compliance workflows. Circle Chief Executive Officer Jeremy Allaire added that the collaboration extends USDC’s institutional reach by embedding the token into systems already used by many of the world’s largest lenders. The roll-out will be supported by a cryptographic identity tool developed with compliance start-up Bluprynt. The “Know Your Issuer” framework, piloted this month with Circle and Paxos, links on-chain credentials to verified stablecoin issuers in an effort to curb the roughly $1.6 billion in annual losses tied to counterfeit digital tokens.