ZUG and SAN FRANCISCO, March 21, 2023— Arf, the Swiss-regulated global settlement banking platform, with support from the Stellar Development Foundation, is now offering the world’s first unsecured, short-term, USDC-based working capital financing solution for licensed financial institutions. 

Making cross-border payments faster, cheaper, and more transparent and inclusive is a priority for global economic development and prosperity. However, as a capital-intensive sector, cross-border payments remain a challenging industry for payment and remittance companies with limited capital; but solutions that bridge Web3 and traditional finance can tackle this problem.

Arf, a global settlement banking platform, and the Stellar Development Foundation, a non-profit organization supporting the growth and development of the open-source Stellar network, have teamed up to solve the liquidity constraints faced by payment and remittance companies in cross-border payments.

Arf’s solution, known as the Arf Credit Line, is built on the Stellar network and powered by Circle's USDC, and provides access to unsecured and short-term (1 to 5 days) working capital for qualified licensed financial institutions worldwide. With Arf Credit Line, financial institutions can make same-day settlements with their partners in desired countries without requiring pre-funding or any additional collateral. Arf Credit Line eliminates the capital-intensive business model for sending parties and counterparty risk for receiving parties in cross-border payments. Moreover, because all of these transactions happen on-chain with USDC, money transfers can be transparently tracked without any intermediary.

“Today, there are more than $4 trillion in pre-funded accounts that could be used for global payments’ growth and development instead of staying idle,” said Arf Co-founder & CEO Ali Erhat Nalbant. “Arf Credit Line unlocks this trapped capital to drive trillions of dollars worth of industry growth. We currently help more than 800 money transfer locations worldwide to make same-day treasury settlements  with their partners in a fully compliant manner, so that they can grow and thrive in competition with global players.”

“We are supporting Arf in creating real-world blockchain use cases that transparently solve liquidity constraints for cross-border payments,” said Denelle Dixon, CEO and Executive Director of the Stellar Development Foundation. “Our commitment to making financial services more accessible for everyone is reinforced by category-defining solutions like Arf’s Credit Line.”

Within four months after its launch, Arf Credit Line has provided over $80 million in loans to licensed financial institutions, generating a cumulative on-chain USDC volume of $150 million. Arf Credit Line creates an exceptional use case showing how USDC on Stellar can be utilized for working capital lending, along with making settlements more transparent, accessible, and in real time.

Financial institutions interested in Arf Credit Line can sign up here.

About Arf

Arf is a regulated global settlement banking platform, eliminating the capital-intensive business model of the cross-border payments industry by offering digital asset-based working capital and settlement services with fiat on- and off-ramp capabilities to licensed financial institutions.

About Stellar

Stellar is a decentralized, fast, scalable, and uniquely sustainable network for financial products and services. It is both a cross-currency transaction system and a platform for digital asset issuance, designed to connect the world’s financial infrastructure. Financial institutions worldwide issue assets and settle payments on the Stellar network, which has grown to over 7 million accounts. For more information, visit stellar.org. 

About the Stellar Development Foundation

The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) is a non-profit organization that supports the development and growth of Stellar, an open-source network that connects the world’s financial infrastructure. Founded in 2014, the Foundation helps maintain Stellar’s codebase, supports the technical and business communities building on the network, and serves as a voice to regulators and institutions. The Foundation seeks to create equitable access to the global financial system, using the Stellar network to unlock the world’s economic potential through blockchain technology. For more information, visit stellar.org/foundation.