Citi, DBS complete first weekend tokenized cross-border deposit on Swift
Citi and DBS completed their first tokenized cross-border transfer over the weekend, using Swift’s blockchain-based ledger to circumvent the constraints of traditional banking hours.
Citibank and DBS Bank have completed their first tokenized cross-border deposit transfer conducted over a weekend, marking a significant operational milestone for both institutions. The transaction was executed using Swift's blockchain-based ledger infrastructure, allowing the two banks to process the transfer outside of conventional banking hours when traditional settlement systems are typically offline.
The move reflects a broader push by major financial institutions to explore tokenization as a solution to longstanding inefficiencies in cross-border payments. Traditional correspondent banking systems operate within fixed business hours and rely on multiple intermediaries, often resulting in delays of one to three business days for international settlements. Swift, which serves as the messaging backbone for thousands of financial institutions globally, has been developing distributed ledger technology integrations to address these limitations.
The successful weekend transaction demonstrates that tokenized deposit infrastructure can extend settlement availability beyond standard operating windows, a capability that could reduce liquidity gaps and counterparty risk for institutions managing international cash positions. For the broader banking sector, this signals growing institutional confidence in deploying tokenization solutions on established financial messaging networks rather than standalone blockchain platforms.
Industry observers will be watching whether Citi and DBS move to scale the initiative beyond pilot transactions, and whether other major correspondent banking partners will pursue similar integrations with Swift's ledger framework in the coming months.
Source: Cointelegraph
