DBS and Citi Tokenize Deposits for Faster Cross-Border Payments
The banking industry is moving towards 24/7 USD payments with tokenized deposits. DBS and Citi have successfully processed a live cross-border USD payment via tokenized deposits, cutting settlement time to minutes. The transaction took place over the weekend on Swift's Digital Ledger, rather than the traditional two business days.
The milestone highlights the progress of tokenized bank money in moving into real-world institutional payment flows. Tokenized deposits are a digital form of a commercial bank's deposit and are part of the regulated banking system. This means that banks can use blockchain to settle transactions without compromising on compliance, interoperability, or existing banking arrangements.
The recent payment is part of DBS' wider digital asset agenda, which includes Tokenized solutions for treasury and other related efforts such as the DBS Token Services platform. The industry forecast for outbound payments from Asia to cross into other regions is expected to be $24 trillion by 2033, almost double the $13.5 trillion experienced in 2025.