The Truth About Stablecoins, Compliance, and Speed, with Marwan Forzley, Veem

Why speed was never the hardest problem in payments: #

Every part of fintech right now is racing toward the same goal: move money faster. Instant settlement, real-time cross-border transfers, stablecoins that clear in seconds. Marwan Forzley, CEO and co-founder of Veem, has built payment infrastructure serving over 100 countries, and his view is that the rail was never the constraint. Once it exists, moving money is mechanically simple. The real work sits in the layers above it: compliance, risk management, and the systems that decide whether a transaction can move at all.

What it actually takes to automate KYC across a hundred countries: #

Veem’s compliance process has to reconcile wildly inconsistent data. Some country registries hand over clean beneficial ownership records. Others leave critical fields blank. Marwan explains how Veem built an automated system to gather, standardize, and fill the gaps in that data, and why a good chunk of the process still depends on getting back to customers with same-day turnaround when something is missing.

Why there’s no shortcut around KYC, no matter which rail you use: #

Marwan pushes back directly on a narrative common in the stablecoin and crypto world: that faster rails should mean lighter compliance. His position is unambiguous. Whether you’re moving money on RTP, Sepa Instant, or a stablecoin, the KYC and KYB requirements don’t change. Friction exists for a reason. The industry’s real opportunity is automating how that data gets collected, not skipping it.

Where stablecoins actually make economic sense: #

Not every corridor benefits from stablecoin rails. In markets like the US-to-euro market, foreign exchange is already cheap and liquid, so a stablecoin has little to offer. Marwan lays out where the economics genuinely favor stablecoins and argues the industry should stop trying to force them into markets where they don’t add value.

Why listen: #

This conversation moves past the usual pitch for faster payment rails and into the part of the industry that rarely gets discussed in public: the compliance and risk infrastructure that determines whether any of that speed is usable. For fintech builders, compliance teams, and anyone evaluating stablecoin use cases, Marwan offers a grounded view of where automation is heading and where it has real limits.