Bank Social is introducing a private permissioned tokenized liquidity network—a new form of modernized shared branching built on distributed ledger technology that may reshape how credit unions move money among themselves and with their members. According to Bank Social COO Becky Reed, the initiative is less about cryptocurrency speculation and more about creating the next-generation backbone for cooperative financial institutions. Under BankSocial’s new model, if a member of Credit Union A deposits funds at Credit Union B, a third party—a designated acquirer—typically facilitates the transaction, often using legacy infrastructure. Bank Social’s model eliminates the need for that intermediary by using interoperable, tokenized rails to enable direct settlement between institutions. “There’s no need for acquirers anymore,” said Reed. “Every participating credit union on the network can settle directly with any other credit union. It’s faster, cheaper, and more secure.” What really differentiates this new model, Reed emphasized, is network visibility and fraud prevention. Traditional payment systems hand off funds and visibility once money leaves the originating institution, leaving fraud detection fragmented and slow. The tokenized network provides a full, real-time view of all transactions across participants. “Using AI, we can analyze transaction patterns across the network in real time. So, if a fraud ring tries to exploit five different local credit unions within minutes of each other, the system can flag it—and even temporarily pause suspicious activity,” said Reed. The system is tokenized, meaning digital representations of value are issued and tracked on a distributed ledger. But these tokens are used strictly as transactional instruments—not investment vehicles, Reed explained. The fintech provides the technology platform and tokenization infrastructure, allowing credit unions to create and manage their own private liquidity networks, Reed explained.