Wells Fargo & Co. announced plans to launch a digital currency called Wells Fargo Digital Cash on its blockchain platform. Clients will be able to use Wells Fargo Digital Cash to handle internal book transfers of cross-transfer payments, according to a press release.

With the blockchain platform, Wells Fargo will be able to power near real-time money movement while removing the need for third parties and reducing transfer time and costs. When the pilot of the program in 2020, it will initially handle U.S. dollar transfers with Wells Fargo Digital Cash, with the goal to expand to other currencies.

"As a result of the increasing digitization of banking services globally, we see a growing demand to further reduce friction regarding traditional borders, and today’s technology puts us in a strong position to do that," Lisa Frazier, head of the innovation group at Wells Fargo, said in the release.

"We believe DLT holds promise for a variety of use cases, and we’re energized to take this significant step in applying the technology to banking in a material and scalable way. Wells Fargo Digital Cash has the potential to enable Wells Fargo to remove barriers to real-time financial interactions across multiple accounts in multiple marketplaces around the world."