digital banking

Two major banks have now completed real-money settlements using tokenized deposits on SWIFT’s shared ledger, demonstrating that weekend and overnight cross-border payments are operationally feasible outside traditional banking hours. This capability challenges the timeline of competing initiatives and signals accelerating adoption among global financial institutions.

• DBS and Citi settled a US dollar cross-border payment between Singapore and New York on September 5 using tokenized deposits on SWIFT’s ledger, completing the transfer in minutes over a weekend.
• Asia’s outbound cross-border payments are projected to reach $24 trillion by 2033, up from $13.5 trillion in 2025, creating demand for faster settlement infrastructure.
• Seventeen banks from six continents are now piloting live transactions on SWIFT’s ledger, with The Bridge, a competing US network, targeting launch in the first half of 2027.

• $24T Projected Asia cross-border payments by 2033 versus $13.5 trillion in 2025
• 17 Banks from six continents currently piloting live tokenized deposit transactions on SWIFT’s ledger
• Sept 5 Date DBS and Citi completed their tokenized dollar settlement on SWIFT’s shared ledger
• Aug 19 When HSBC and Standard Chartered ran the network’s first live tokenized deposit transfer

Weekend Settlement Breaks Traditional Banking Constraints

DBS and Citibank have successfully executed a cross-border US dollar payment using tokenized deposits on SWIFT’s shared ledger, settling the transfer in minutes on September 5 between Singapore and New York over a weekend when traditional banking corridors would require up to two business days. The transaction used commercial-bank money issued on a blockchain, with SWIFT’s ledger functioning as an orchestration layer that matched and netted obligations between the two institutions before final settlement proceeded through existing payment infrastructure.

The weekend settlement capability addresses a longstanding friction point in global finance. Corporate treasurers, financial institutions, and cross-border traders frequently face delays when payments cross time zones or fall outside standard business hours. A transaction initiated Friday evening in Asia must wait until Monday morning in New York to clear through conventional rails, creating operational inefficiencies and settlement risk exposure that extends over multiple calendar days.

SWIFT’s tokenized deposit approach eliminates these artificial constraints by allowing settlement to occur whenever counterparties are ready to transact, not when back-office operations staff resume work. This continuous availability aligns with the reality of modern financial markets, where trading and liquidity management increasingly operate across multiple time zones simultaneously.

DBS Positions Itself as Asia’s Tokenized Banking Leader

DBS, Southeast Asia’s largest bank, has built an expanding ecosystem of tokenized financial services. The institution launched DBS Token Services in 2024 and serves as the only Asian-headquartered bank in the 12-member core design group steering SWIFT’s ledger project.

Beyond SWIFT participation, DBS operates DBS Treasury Tokens, a permissioned blockchain for corporate treasury and liquidity management, and has partnered with Ripple and Franklin Templeton to launch tokenized repo markets on the XRP Ledger. The bank’s digital exchange currently lists Franklin’s sgBENJI money market token and Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin. This multi-platform strategy positions DBS to capture value across various tokenization approaches while influencing industry standards.

In a global digital economy that never sleeps, businesses need to move money more quickly and efficiently across borders to stay competitive.

Rachel Chew, Group Chief Operating Officer and Co-Head of Digital Assets, Global Transaction Services at DBS

Rapid Adoption Expanding Across Six Continents

The DBS-Citi transaction follows HSBC and Standard Chartered’s completion of the network’s first live tokenized deposit transfer on August 19, establishing a pattern of working settlements rather than theoretical pilots.

Seventeen banks spanning six continents, including ANZ, BNP Paribas, MUFG, UBS, and Wells Fargo, are now conducting live transaction pilots on SWIFT’s ledger. SWIFT announced the ledger capability in September 2025 and engaged Consensys to prototype the infrastructure. The rapid expansion of the pilot group suggests that major global institutions view tokenized settlements as operationally viable and strategically important.

The geographic diversity of participants is particularly significant. While previous blockchain initiatives in payments often concentrated among forward-leaning technology adopters or regional consortium members, this deployment spans traditional banking strongholds in North America, Europe, and Asia, as well as emerging financial markets. This breadth indicates that the infrastructure solves problems relevant to institutions across different regulatory environments and business models.

Citi’s Head of Services for Asia South, Mridula Iyer, stated that the DBS transaction reflects the bank’s commitment to building financial infrastructure that is always-on, interoperable, and designed for future digital money operations.

Competition From Bridge Network and Market Skepticism

A competing initiative, The Bridge, is being developed by The Clearing House in partnership with JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo, with a planned launch in the first half of 2027 and open access to all US banks. This timeline suggests SWIFT’s ledger may operate in parallel with alternative systems for some years. The two platforms may ultimately serve different markets or functionality, with The Bridge potentially optimized for US domestic interbank settlement while SWIFT’s system emphasizes global reach.

Despite the transaction momentum, Bank of America’s Mark Monaco has indicated that clients are not yet aggressively demanding tokenized deposit products, though interest is gradually increasing across the industry. This gap between technological capability and market demand suggests that adoption will depend on demonstrated business benefits beyond the novelty of near-instant settlement.

Regulatory clarity remains an open question. Central bank digital currencies and tokenized commercial bank money operate in evolving legal frameworks that vary significantly by jurisdiction. Scaling these systems globally will require coordination on prudential standards, settlement finality, and interoperability requirements.

The next critical inflection point will be whether The Bridge’s 2027 launch accelerates US bank adoption of competing infrastructure or whether SWIFT’s early momentum and global footprint secure it as the primary settlement layer for tokenized cross-border payments.