Citi and DBS completed their first weekend tokenized cross-border transfer on Saturday, moving funds between Singapore and the United States through tokenized deposits on Swift Digital Ledger.
DBS said Monday that the transaction used Swift’s blockchain-based ledger to work around the limits of traditional banking hours.
Settlement finished within minutes
The deposit transfer was completed in minutes, according to DBS. The bank described that as a significant improvement over the industry norm for traditional cross-border transfers, which can take as long as two business days.
The transaction shows how traditional banks are testing blockchain rails to make cross-border payments more efficient while keeping deposits inside banking channels.
Swift moved into initial use in July
In July, Swift, the world’s largest financial messaging network, said its blockchain-based ledger was ready for initial use and that it was preparing pilot programs for tokenized cross-border payments with 17 major banks.
The banks named at the time included Citi, DBS, HSBC, BNP Paribas, UBS, ANZ and Standard Chartered.
Earlier, Standard Chartered and HSBC became the first banks to complete a tokenized cross-border transaction on Swift’s blockchain ledger in August.
Tokenized deposit projects are expanding
In June, David Watson, CEO of bank-owned payments operator The Clearing House, told The Wall Street Journal that a group of the largest US banks, including Citi, plans to launch a separate tokenized deposit network in the first half of 2027. The network would be operated by The Clearing House.
Separately, in November 2025, DBS and JPMorgan said they planned to develop a blockchain-based tokenization framework to allow onchain transfers between their deposit token ecosystems, with the stated aim of setting an industry standard for cross-bank payments.