Dive Brief:
- Fiserv is acquiring StoneCastle Cash Management, a cash management firm that provides banks liquidity, and will leverage the firm’s platform to bolster its FIUSD stablecoin, the payments giant said Monday in a press release.
- Fiserv said the StoneCastle acquisition will allow it to become “a technology-enabled source of billions of dollars of institutional deposits,” to help strengthen banks’ balance sheets. StoneCastle’s platform will also help financial institutions “retain funds associated with FIUSD issuance,” Fiserv said in the release.
- Milwaukee-based Fiserv said the deal is expected to close by the first quarter of 2026. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Dive Insight:
StoneCastle says its deposit platform helps “optimize” deposits from individuals, governments and businesses to provide “stable, cost-efficient” deposit funding for more than 1,000 community banks and credit unions, according to the press release.
The deposit platform will help financial institutions “strengthen their balance sheets by integrating insured deposit products alongside their core account processing, digital banking, payments and cash-management capabilities across the Fiserv ecosystem,” the company said.
“We believe this further sets Fiserv apart in core banking by enabling institutions to custody cash supporting FIUSD stablecoins, while unlocking new value and accelerating innovation across the financial ecosystem,” Takis Georgakopoulos, Fiserv’s chief operating officer, said in the release.
Fiserv announced its own stablecoin in June, planning to leverage its network of 10,000 financial institutions, 6 million merchant locations and 90 billion annual transactions to help scale its stablecoin. At the time, the company also said it was exploring ways to make its stablecoin “more capital-friendly” for banks.
The acquisition will help Fiserv enable any financial institution who wants to issue FIUSD to keep those funds on their own balance sheet, a Fiserv spokesperson said Monday in an email. The company plans to issue the stablecoin to its banking and payments systems by year’s end, the spokesperson said.
New York-based StoneCastle has about 100 employees, according to its LinkedIn page. The company was founded in 2009 by investment firm StoneCastle Partners. StoneCastle has an existing relationship with over 300 Fiserv core banks as part of the larger deposit network.
“Joining Fiserv will accelerate our ability to innovate, expand our reach to financial institutions and depositors, and deliver even greater value through a unified, modern platform,” Joshua Siegel, StoneCastle Partners’ founder and chief executive, said in the news release.
Last week, Fiserv announced a separate acquisition, of Florida-based Smith Consulting Group, to bolster its servicing of smaller banks and credit unions with deeper technical expertise.
