--- title: "Unlocking African trade potential with enterprise blockchain" id: "941" type: "case-study" slug: "standard-bank" published_at: "2025-09-05T15:06:51+00:00" modified_at: "2025-12-09T08:58:33+00:00" url: "https://hedera.com/case-study/standard-bank/" markdown_url: "https://hedera.com/case-study/standard-bank.md" excerpt: "Problem Cross-border trade in Africa suffers from slow settlements, limited transparency, high fees, and asymmetric information—hindering liquidity management and delaying payments. These inefficiencies tie up working capital, create cash flow uncertainty for businesses, and make it difficult for trading partners..." --- [Skip to content](#content) case study # Unlocking African trade potential with enterprise blockchain As a Hedera Council member, Standard Bank leverages Hedera to revolutionize financial services, enhancing transaction speed, security, and efficiency while reducing costs in cross-border payments and settlements in Africa. [Visit Standard Bank](https://www.standardbank.co.za/) $905B Remittance market size 2024 $0.50 Remittance transaction fee 2.5s Settlement time relevant articles - [Payments on Hedera](https://hedera.com/use-cases/payments/) - [Standard Bank: An analysis of decentralized bond marketplaces](https://hedera.com/blog/standard-bank-an-analysis-of-decentralized-bond-marketplaces) - [Standard Bank Group establishes Africa’s first Hedera network node to enable much-needed digitisation of cross-border trade processes](https://hedera.com/blog/standard-bank-group-establishes-africas-first-hedera-network-node-to-enable-much-needed-digitisation-of-cross-border-trade-processes) ## Problem Cross-border trade in Africa suffers from slow settlements, limited transparency, high fees, and asymmetric information—hindering liquidity management and delaying payments. These inefficiencies tie up working capital, create cash flow uncertainty for businesses, and make it difficult for trading partners to assess risk or build trust. For financial institutions serving the continent, modernizing this fragmented infrastructure is essential to unlocking Africa’s trade potential. ## Solution Standard Bank partnered with Shinhan Bank to pilot a stablecoin-based remittance solution on Hedera, enabling near-instant settlement of cross-border transfers. The pilot demonstrated how blockchain infrastructure can deliver traceable, low-cost transactions with end-to-end visibility—giving both institutions and their customers real-time insight into payment status while dramatically reducing fees and processing times. Stablecoins have the potential to bring a wide range of benefits to the banking industry, including stability, transparency, security, accessibility, liquidity, and more. We are thrilled to introduce Stablecoin Studio to our project teams. We believe that this accelerator can help us understand the benefits of stablecoins and how they can bring value to our relevant projects. Jared Lindolent Product Owner ## Building the rails for Africa’s digital economy Standard Bank, the continent’s largest financial institution by assets, joined the Hedera Council and established Africa’s first Hedera network node in February 2021. By operating this critical infrastructure, Standard Bank gained direct participation in network governance while positioning itself at the forefront of enterprise blockchain adoption. This foundational investment laid the groundwork for digitizing and overcoming long-standing frictions in cross-border trade and payments that have historically constrained African commerce. ## Innovation: Stablecoin remittances In a joint proof‑of‑concept with Shinhan Bank of South Korea, each bank issued stablecoins pegged to their national currency. Transfers settled in under a minute for under $0.50, offering trackability and dramatically reduced costs compared to traditional methods. By embedding DLT into its infrastructure, Standard Bank is strategically positioned to support future CBDC integration, tokenized assets, and broader digital payment mechanisms—leading Africa’s digital transformation in trade finance. ## Why Hedera Hedera removes the need for intermediaries that traditionally slow down cross-border transactions, ensuring data integrity, instant confirmation, and transparency across all transaction parties. Every transfer is recorded on an immutable, auditable ledger that all participants can trust—eliminating the reconciliation delays and information gaps that plague legacy systems. Its enterprise-grade performance made Hedera the ideal foundation for Standard Bank’s digital trade ambitions. The network delivers high throughput and finality in seconds, while maintaining low, predictable fees that don’t fluctuate with market conditions. Hedera’s energy-efficient consensus mechanism also aligns with Standard Bank’s sustainability commitments, offering a responsible path to blockchain adoption without the environmental concerns associated with other networks. discover See more case studies [View All](/case-studies) ### Shinhan Bank Advancing cross-border payments across Asia [Click Here](https://hedera.com/case-study/shinhan-bank/) ### ioBuilders Pioneering enterprise DLT solutions [Click Here](https://hedera.com/case-study/iobuilders/) ### AUDD Pioneering digital finance in Asia-Pacific with AUDD on Hedera [Click Here](https://hedera.com/case-study/audd/) ## Ready to get started? Discover why Hedera is the trusted institutional-grade network powering the new digital economy. 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