Shinhan Financial Group said it will work with Visa to test stablecoin issuance, remittances, and redemption using Visa’s stablecoin platform, while also developing AI-driven payment models. According to Sina Finance, the partnership marks the first formal adoption by a top South Korean financial group of Visa’s enterprise stablecoin infrastructure.

Under the agreement, the two sides will jointly design business models for the South Korean market and run pilot projects covering the integration of stablecoin and card payment settlement, as well as the expansion of B2B and B2C payments. Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Cho Yong-duk said the company will combine Shinhan’s financial capabilities with Visa’s global infrastructure to design a new future finance model.

The report said the deal puts Visa ahead of Mastercard in South Korea’s bank-native stablecoin settlement infrastructure. Visa’s enterprise stablecoin platform was launched in July, and Shinhan plans to use it to test a full domestic settlement system.

The cooperation comes as South Korea advances legislation for the Digital Asset Basic Act, which covers stablecoins, virtual asset service provider licensing, and crypto exchange-traded funds. Shinhan Financial Group manages about 134 trillion won in assets. Earlier this month, its asset management unit signed a four-party agreement with the Solana Foundation, Etherfuse, and Orca to test won-denominated tokenized funds. Shinhan also piloted a stablecoin payment system with Solana in April.