Under the expanded agreement, Jack Henry is set to become the first core banking technology provider to integrate with Google Cloud Universal Ledger (GCUL). The integration gives financial institutions on its platform a route to issue and transfer tokenised deposits. The announcement extends a strategic relationship between the two companies that dates back to 2022.
GCUL is a fully managed distributed ledger service from Google Cloud. It allows financial institutions to tokenise and transfer money and assets on a shared, real-time record, with programmable settlement available 24/7.
Targeting community and regional institutions
The initiative is aimed at community and regional banks and credit unions. According to Jack Henry, these institutions face growing competition from large banks and fintech providers as consumers and businesses increasingly expect real-time, programmable financial services. Through the process of building tokenised deposit infrastructure into its ecosystem, Jack Henry intends to let these institutions explore new transactional use cases and introduce new payment and settlement capabilities.
Jack Henry's Chief Technology Officer Ben Metz said tokenised deposits have the potential to change how money moves across the financial ecosystem. The official added that the company’s strategy centres on helping institutions adopt emerging technologies through scalable infrastructure, while building on the client relationships and service that distinguish them. James Tromans, director, Web3 and Digital Assets at Google Cloud, said that the collaboration is intended to make digital asset capabilities available to community and regional institutions, rather than limiting them to larger players.
Capabilities and settlement model
According to the companies, tokenised deposits on GCUL are designed to help institutions retain deposit relationships while offering digital payment and value-transfer functions. End clients would gain instant payment execution on a 24/7/365 basis, along with automated, programmable workflows. These workflows would operate across what the companies describe as an expanding network of institutional participants, currencies, and asset classes.
On the operational side, the setup combines Jack Henry’s architecture, which the company says is intended to simplify adoption and reduce operational complexity, with Google Cloud’s distributed ledger infrastructure. The companies also cite capital efficiency. Automated clearing and multilateral netting are intended to remove the need for liquidity tie-ups or pre-funded accounts. Institutions could then scale digital asset activity while preserving core reserves and primary deposit relationships.
At the same time, the focus on deposit retention ties directly to the competitive pressures described by the companies. For Jack Henry’s clients, the model offers access to shared-ledger settlement through their existing core provider.
A relationship built on cloud modernisation
Jack Henry and Google Cloud formed their strategic relationship in 2022 to accelerate Jack Henry’s cloud-native technology modernisation strategy. In June 2026, the companies announced plans to deliver AI-driven security capabilities, integrating Google Cloud’s agentic defence solutions to protect banks and credit unions against cyber threats.
The GCUL integration extends the partnership beyond cloud infrastructure and security into ledger technology, digital assets, and payments. The announcement does not specify a launch date or name the institutions expected to offer tokenised deposits first.
