**Stablecoins make money settle like cash again: pay, and it's done. Rain CEO Farooq Malik argues on the World Economic Forum's site that finance should embrace the upgrade.**
In his Oct 12, 2026 op-ed, Malik says electronic rails "separated payment from settlement," forcing banks to prefund accounts and reconcile after the fact. Capgemini estimates as much as $4 trillion sits trapped in settlement and liquidity accounts for cross-border payments. With a stablecoin, "the transfer and the record of it are the same event." That could free idle capital and make more markets "economic to serve." He also asks who benefits from the delay: institutions that earn on the float. The views are Malik's own, not WEF's, and Rain sells stablecoin payments infrastructure. Its OCC trust bank application from S2E23 is still pending.
What you'll learn:
- Why cash's "payment and settlement at the same time" is the property stablecoins bring back
- Where the up to $4 trillion in trapped capital comes from, per Capgemini
- Why sending $200 to sub-Saharan Africa costs 8.46% on average, per the World Bank
- Who profits from slow money, and why incumbents need to adapt
- The BIS "singleness, elasticity and integrity" hurdles, and how the stablecoin case answers them
Keywords: stablecoins, cross-border payments, Rain, Farooq Malik, World Economic Forum, settlement, correspondent banking, BIS, remittances.
#Stablecoins #Payments #CrossBorderPayments #Rain #Remittances #Fintech #OnlyFintechs
