- DBS and Citi have successfully executed cross-border payments across different time zones using tokenized deposits.
- The Singaporean bank’s study found that outbound cross-border transaction volume has reached $13.5 trillion in 2025, and it expects the numbers to climb to $24 trillion by 2033.
Leading financial institutions DBS Bank and Citigroup have recently achieved a new milestone in their cross-border settlement capabilities. The banking giants have executed transactions across different time zones over the weekend, demonstrating the mostly untapped potential of tokenized deposits on the SWIFT Digital Ledger.
New Cross-Border Settlement Milestone of DBS and Citi
According to the parties, the transaction only took minutes to complete. This is a significant improvement over the usual industry norm, which can take up to two business days to finalize due to time zone differences, strict banking cut-off times, and bank closures on weekends.
DBS highlighted that the milestone will benefit enterprises operating 24/7, such as those in the e-commerce and digital services sectors. This provides them with greater flexibility and faster access to cash when transacting with customers and suppliers. Additionally, corporate treasurers can leverage the feature to move liquidity almost instantly across entities and markets as needed.
The Singapore-headquartered bank revealed in its survey last year that 50% of finance leaders are already exploring blockchain-powered solutions to manage their liquidity and FX operations. It comes in response to the surging demand for more efficient cross-border services, especially in Asia.
The bank’s report found that outbound cross-border payments and remittances alone have reached roughly $13.5 trillion in volume. It expects the figures to rise further to $24 trillion by 2033.
Adapting to the Evolving Financial Landscape
Rachel Chew, Group Chief Operating Officer and Co-Head of Digital Assets and Global Transaction Services at DBS, emphasized that the evolving financial landscape driven by digital assets has paved the way for a digital economy that never sleeps. Hence, businesses must adopt and integrate solutions that enable quick, efficient movement of money anywhere in the world to stay competitive.
“We are pleased to be working with Citi to demonstrate how tokenized money is moving from experimentation to real-world adoption—laying the foundations for a more connected, nimble and always-on global financial system,” said Chew.
Meanwhile, Mridula Iyer, Head of Services for Asia South at Citi, pointed out that “always-on cross-border payments” have become a reality, thanks to tokenized money.
“This work is a natural extension of our strategy in the Services business to integrate our traditional cash management and securities capabilities with emerging tokenized networks and assets and deliver value to institutional clients across their local and global operating models,” Iyer noted.
Tokenized money is the digital representation of traditional fiat currency or bank deposits recorded on a blockchain or distributed ledger. The key types of these assets are stablecoins, tokenized deposits, tokenized money market funds (MMFs), and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
