07:43 AM EDT, 09/16/2025 (MT Newswires) -- VersaBank ( VBNK ) Tuesday said it is refreshing its Canadian digital deposit receipts pilot, called the CADVB Pilot Refresh, and plans to integrate it with the U.S. version of the program.

The refresh is intended to confirm the functionality, security and operational integrity of the DDRs, including compliance with Canadian anti-money laundering and terrorist financing laws.

VersaBank ( VBNK ) said its core banking technology platform has advanced since the first Canadian pilot ended in 2022.

The Canadian refresh will run alongside the recently launched U.S.-dollar DDR pilot to demonstrate the bank's ability to process high-speed, low-cost and encrypted cross-border payments using DDRs as 1:1 representations of deposits.

Both pilots are expected to be completed by the end of calendar 2025, with a commercial launch planned soon after, the bank said.

"Nearly C$1 trillion dollars in trade is transacted between the United States and Canada each year. As the only nationally licensed bank with tokenized deposit technology and capabilities on both sides of the border, our proprietary Digital Deposit Receipts represent an exceptional near-term opportunity for the bank by providing businesses of all sizes with blockchain-secured, high-speed, low-cost foreign exchanges transactions, with the critical advantage of legally permitted interest payments and deposit insurance, which non-bank issued stablecoins are not allowed to provide per the US GENIUS Act," said David Taylor, president of VersaBank ( VBNK ).