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DBS and Citi have completed the first weekend cross-border US dollar payment between Singapore and the United States using tokenized deposits on Swift’s Digital Ledger.
The live transaction was executed on September 5 between DBS in Singapore and Citi’s New York office. It took minutes, compared with the banks’ estimate of up to two business days when conventional cross-border payments encounter weekend and time-zone cutoffs.
September 5 Payment Moved Dollars Outside Normal Banking Hours
The transaction was completed outside normal operating hours using bank-issued tokenized deposits within regulated banking infrastructure. The banks did not disclose the payment amount or identify an underlying corporate customer.
Unlike stablecoins issued by non-bank companies, tokenized deposits represent commercial bank money on participating institutions’ balance sheets. DBS and Citi used their own tokenized deposit infrastructure, while Swift’s shared ledger coordinated the cross-border transfer.
Swift Ledger Connects Tokenized Deposits Across Separate Banks
Swift launched its blockchain-based ledger for initial use in July with 17 banks from six continents.
The system coordinates payment obligations between bank-issued tokenized deposits rather than requiring institutions to issue money on a single public blockchain.
Final interbank settlement continues through existing financial infrastructure. The September 5 transaction therefore does not replace correspondent banking or central bank settlement with blockchain finality.
Live US-Singapore Payment Used Real Value Rather Than Simulation
DBS already operates tokenized-deposit infrastructure for institutional payments and liquidity management, while Citi is participating in Swift’s broader live transaction phase.
The September 5 transfer extended that work into the US-Singapore corridor using real value rather than a simulated transaction.
Neither bank has disclosed when the capability could become broadly available to customers or provided transaction-volume targets for future use.
