DBS Bank and Citibank said they completed a cross-border U.S. dollar payment between Singapore and the United States using tokenized deposit technology on Swift’s digital ledger, with the transaction carried out on September 5 by DBS and Citibank’s New York office.

The banks said the payment linked Singapore and the U.S. and was completed within minutes. According to the announcement, that was materially faster than the roughly two business days often associated with traditional cross-border transfers. The firms also described it as the first cross-border USD payment executed on a weekend by the two parties.

The transaction used tokenized deposits rather than a public stablecoin. In this structure, bank deposits are represented in tokenized form on digital infrastructure designed for transfers and settlement. DBS and Citi said the setup was built on Swift’s digital ledger framework.

DBS said the collaboration was built on DBS Token Services, which it launched in 2024. The bank said that platform supports 24/7, programmable, secure and instant fund transfers. It also includes DBS Treasury Tokens, which DBS said run on its licensed blockchain and are designed for fund and liquidity management.

The announcement did not disclose transaction size, commercial terms, customer participation, or whether the payment was part of a pilot, test, or wider production rollout. It also did not specify whether additional corridors or banking partners will be added.

Why It Matters

The transaction adds to a growing effort by large financial institutions to modernize cross-border payments using tokenized forms of bank money rather than relying only on legacy cut-off windows and batch-based settlement. Weekend and near-instant processing is especially relevant for corporate treasury operations that need faster liquidity movement across time zones.

For digital-asset markets, the significance is structural rather than immediate. The development points to continued institutional interest in tokenized deposits as a regulated payments rail that could compete with or complement stablecoin-based settlement in some use cases, particularly where banks want tighter control over compliance, access, and balance-sheet integration.