Circle, LuLuFin Cut Cross-Border Settlement Costs by Up to 30%

Taking to X, Circle announced on August 26, 2026, that LuLu Financial Holdings (LFH) has reduced cross-border settlement costs by 25% to 30% as it has adopted $USDC and Circle Mint for remittance flows across the GCC, MENA and APAC regions. Circle and LuLuFin also reported a 40% rise in settlement volume and beneficiary crediting in less than a minute once settlement is completed.

Banking Hours Meet a 24/7 World

People can send money home at any time of the day but doing that with a traditional banking system means that the money does not always move at the same pace. Cross border-remittance firms handling US dollar flows are usually dependent on correspondent banks, which operate within local business hours and can involve several intermediaries.

This setup can cause delays, extra costs, foreign exchange friction and manual reconciliation work. For companies that are operating between the Gulf, the wider Middle East, North Africa and Asia-Pacific, the challenge becomes more noticeable because the relevant banking systems sit in different time zones.

LuLu Financial Holdings, through a subsidiary that provides remittance infrastructure to licensed institutions and fintech firms, wanted to remove that headache of time zones. Its goal was not to replace the dollar but to make dollar-denominated liquidity move with more flexibility.

“We weren’t just dealing with technical delays. These gaps directly hit our settlement efficiency and our ability to move liquidity when it was needed most.” said Joseph Cleetus, Head of Business Transformation at LuLu Financial Holdings, in the company’s case study.

How LuLuFin Uses Circle Mint and $USDC

LuLuFin uses Circle Mint so that it can convert US dollars into $USDC on a one-to-one basis. This $USDC is then transferred to partner wallets, where it can be used as working liquidity for cross-border settlement or redeemed back into fiat through banking and payout channels.

The company is simply using a digital version of the US dollar to shift treasury funds between partners without waiting for the next banking window. Circle Mint is designed for institutional customers to mint and redeem $USDC directly with Circle, rather than serving retail users.

The approach lets LFH settle flows around the clock. Partner firms can receive $USDC, retain it for upcoming payouts or convert it to local fiat currency through supported rails. Fiat redemptions still depend on applicable banking processes but the onchain movement of $USDC can take place outside conventional correspondent-bank hours.

Circle and LuLuFin first announced their partnership back in December 2024, alongside Circle’s incorporation in the AGDM, with their initial focus on payment corridors linking the Middle East with Asia and Europe. Circle said the arrangement was intended to support faster remittances, lower costs and improved liquidity management.

Lower Costs, Faster Credit

According to LFH, the change produced measurable operational gains:

• Cross-border settlement costs declined by 25% to 30% compared with its earlier correspondent-banking channels.
• Settlement volume increased 40% after the move to $USDC.
• Beneficiaries receive credit in under one minute after settlement finishes.
• The firm reported 100% settlement-amount accuracy and a 100% success rate for its on-ramp conversion flows.

The firm also highlighted visibility as a major advantage. In a conventional cross-border payment chain, operations teams may need to trace a transfer through multiple banks. With an onchain transaction, the amount and status can be checked in real time on the relevant blockchain.

This does not mean every part of remittance becomes instant. Local payout rails, compliance checks and fiat-bank crediting can still introduce delays. But the settlement layer, often a costly and slow part of the process, can run continuously.

LuLuFin Eyes CCTP and Circle Wallets

LuLuFin is now considering broader use of Circle’s wallet infrastructure and evaluating the Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol, or CCTP. The protocol enables native $USDC transfers between supported blockchains, potentially allowing a company to move liquidity across networks without relying on wrapped versions of the token.

For remittance providers, the model is straightforward: maintain regulated local operations and payout partners, while using a digital-dollar treasury layer to fund partners at any hour. It is a more modern plumbing system for a business that still serves a very familiar purpose, helping people get money to family and businesses across borders.

As Cleetus put it, Circle has given LFH settlement speed, liquidity flexibility and operational transparency that would have been difficult to achieve with traditional settlement infrastructure alone.