Standard Bank Group has partnered with Hedera Hashgraph and joined the Hedera Governing Council. Standard Bank will establish the continent's first Hedera network node, which is set to solve some of the sore points that have historically beset the development of cross-border trade. Lengthy settlement periods, information asymmetry between multiple parties involved in a transaction, which ends up creating delays in receiving approval from intermediaries, are some of the challenges that create bottlenecks in cross-border trade. Further, there is little to no visibility or transparency for all parties involved. Hedera's distributed ledger technology (DLT) effectively allows for the sharing of information between two parties involved in a transaction and ensures that information or data is in fact credible and authentic – without the need for a trusted intermediary. Transactions conducted via the DLT platform are not confirmed until all data fields and conditions are met. This creates a transparent environment and allows for trades to be settled faster and more efficiently. Standard Bank Group has been a pioneer in leveraging blockchain and distributed ledger technologies to bring speed and transparency to its large and growing customer base across Africa. It has leveraged this technology for several use cases, including foreign exchange (FX) payments and settlement across partner banks, clients, and counterparties involved in trades. While domestic payments are already instant, cheap and transparent, cross-border transactions are subject to several complications such as dependency on banking networks. Many of these challenges are removed when conducting cross-border payments with digital currencies like stablecoins based on a DLT platform. Stablecoins are designed to minimise price volatility by pegging the currency to a relative or particular "stable" asset or basket of assets. The digital currency provides instant settlement and high liquidity and visibility, which in turn helps businesses to track the process and manage their own liquidity needs. This is critical in the current cash-crunch environment. As part of the partnership, Standard Bank joins the Hedera Governing Council – a growing network of the world's large enterprises and organizations, including Avery Dennison, Boeing, Dentons, Deutsche Telekom, DLA Piper, eftpos, FIS, Google, IBM, LG Electronics, Magalu, Nomura, Swirlds, Tata Communications, University College London (UCL), Wipro, and Zain Group. Members of the Hedera Governing Council are responsible for running the initial nodes of the Hedera network, as well as guiding both strategy and software development, over a maximum of two consecutive three-year terms. This ensures stability and is conducive to maintaining diversity and decentralization of the public network, with a governance model that eliminates the risk of forks, safeguards users, and preserves the integrity of the Hedera network.