Odaily Planet Daily report: On September 5, DBS and Citibank’s New York office completed a cross-border USD payment between Singapore and the United States using tokenized deposits via the SWIFT digital ledger. The transaction, executed over the weekend, took only a few minutes, whereas traditional cross-border payments typically require up to two business days.
This is the second real-time application confirmed on the Swift Digital Ledger, following HSBC and Standard Chartered’s completion of the first real-time tokenized deposit cross-border transaction in August. Swift announced on July 9 that the ledger was available for initial use, with 17 banks preparing to participate in the pilot. DBS is the only bank among the 12 core design group members headquartered in Asia. Rachel Chew, Chief Operating Officer of DBS Group, stated that the Swift Digital Ledger is connecting traditional banking infrastructure with emerging digital networks; Mridula Iyer, Head of South Asia Services at Citibank, noted that this weekend’s real-time transaction demonstrates that 24/7 cross-border payments have become a reality. DBS launched DBS Token Services in 2024, offering round-the-clock programmable instant value transfer services.