Citi and DBS Break Ground on Always-On Payments with Swift's Digital Ledger

Citi and DBS Group have successfully completed a USD payment using tokenized deposits via Swift's Digital Ledger, settling the transaction in minutes over the weekend. This achievement demonstrates the growing momentum behind always-on payments, which are becoming increasingly normalized.

The two multinational banking corporations leveraged Swift's blockchain technology to facilitate the cross-border transfer while traditional finance rails were closed. This marks a significant milestone for tokenized deposits as they move from experimentation to real-world adoption.

Citi and DBS's achievement is part of a 17-bank pilot led by Swift, which aims to enable faster, flexible money movement across the world. The blockchain technology used in this pilot has also sparked interest in programmable money and agentic commerce.