DBS and Citi Settle Cross-Border Payment in Minutes Using Tokenized Deposits

DBS and Citi have successfully completed a cross-border U.S. dollar payment between Singapore and the United States using tokenized bank deposits.

The transaction, which took place on September 5 through Citi's New York office, was settled within minutes via Swift's Digital Ledger.

This innovation allows commercial banks to support round-the-clock international payments without relying on public stablecoins or cryptocurrencies.

The payment used tokenized deposits, which represent commercial-bank money in digital form, rather than privately issued stablecoins circulating on public blockchains.

DBS described the transaction as the first successful weekend USD payment between Singapore and the United States, noting that conventional cross-border transfers can take up to two business days once time-zone differences, processing cutoffs, and weekends interrupt settlement.