Standard Chartered Launches Custodial Services for RLUSD

Standard Chartered Bank announced the launch of institutional custodial support for Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin on the XRP Ledger platform. The service became available on October 12, providing clients with the opportunity to utilize the bank's digital asset infrastructure. Custodial support is provided through the bank's Dubai branch, which is regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA).

The bank is also working with Ripple and LMAX Group to make RLUSD eligible collateral and extend Standard Chartered's collateral mirroring model to LMAX Group. The scheme will allow LMAX to reflect the value of eligible collateral in RLUSD without the need to transfer the tokens themselves to the trading platform. However, the planned capabilities still require final documentation, testing, internal approvals, and regulatory readiness in the respective jurisdictions.

Vakar Chaudhry, the bank's global head of digital assets, noted that institutional clients want to participate in digital markets without compromising their asset protection standards and risk management. Jack McDonald, senior vice president for stablecoins at Ripple, added that clients want to use a regulated stablecoin while maintaining familiar custodial service conditions.

As part of a multi-year partnership concluded on January 15, 2026, Ripple agreed to provide LMAX Group with $150 million in funding to support cross-asset operations. The partnership involves the integration of RLUSD into institutional trading infrastructure and the use of the stablecoin as collateral, margin financing, and settlement currency.

Standard Chartered's custodial services have already covered Bitcoin and Ethereum since September 2024, when the bank entered the UAE market through DFSA-regulated operations in DIFC. Later, the bank expanded custodial services to Luxembourg, with LMAX becoming its first client there after MiCA authorization in June 2026. Standard Chartered's custodial services are already available to institutional clients; however, the bank has not disclosed the number of clients or the value of RLUSD currently under its management.