DBS and Citi have completed what the banks describe as the first successful cross-border USD payment between Singapore and the United States using tokenised deposits on the Swift Digital Ledger.
The transaction was executed on Saturday 5 September between DBS and Citi’s New York office and settled within minutes, highlighting the potential for 24/7 cross-border payments in an increasingly digital and always-on global economy.
The milestone addresses one of the longstanding challenges in international payments, where transactions can take up to two business days to complete due to banking cut-off times, weekends and differences in time zones. By leveraging tokenised deposits through Swift’s digital ledger infrastructure, the banks were able to process the payment without waiting for conventional settlement windows.
The capability is expected to be particularly valuable for organisations operating in sectors such as e-commerce, digital services and global trade, where businesses increasingly require real-time access to liquidity and the ability to move funds across jurisdictions at short notice.
According to DBS, the development comes as corporate treasurers seek more sophisticated tools to manage liquidity and foreign exchange risk amid market volatility and international expansion.
The bank’s latest New Realities, New Possibilities survey found that half of finance leaders are exploring blockchain-powered solutions as part of their liquidity and FX management strategies.
Industry demand for faster cross-border payment infrastructure is also expected to grow significantly. Research from Money20/20 and FXC Intelligence projects Asia’s outbound cross-border payment volumes will reach USD 24 trillion by 2033, compared with USD 13.5 trillion in 2025.
Rachel Chew, Group Chief Operating Officer and Co-Head of Digital Assets, Global Transaction Services at DBS, said the transaction demonstrates how tokenised money is beginning to move beyond pilot projects into real-world applications.
“In a global digital economy that never sleeps, businesses need to move money more quickly and efficiently across borders to stay competitive,” she said. “Swift Digital Ledger is bridging traditional banking infrastructures with emerging digital networks to enable deeper interoperability that benefits clients.”
Mridula Iyer, Head of Services for Asia South at Citi, said the transaction showed that around-the-clock cross-border payments are no longer a future concept.
“Processing a live transaction over a weekend demonstrates that always-on cross-border payments are already a reality,” she said. “This work is a natural extension of our strategy in the Services business to integrate our traditional cash management and securities capabilities with emerging tokenised networks and assets.”
