DBS, OCBC and UOB completed Singapore's first live domestic Singapore dollar interbank transactions using tokenised deposits on Swift's blockchain-based ledger, the three banks said on Thursday, 10 September. The transactions were executed through the exchange of payment messages between the three institutions over the ledger, with the resulting obligations recorded as tokenised deposit obligations on each bank's own tokenised-deposit infrastructure. Swift's ledger functioned as an orchestration layer, matching and netting the obligations between the banks before final settlement was completed through existing systems. It was the first occasion on which all three Singapore-headquartered banks executed live interbank transactions using tokenised deposits.
The transactions follow Swift's announcement in July 2026 that its blockchain-based ledger was ready for initial use, with 17 banks across six continents preparing to conduct live transactions using tokenised deposits for round-the-clock cross-border payments. The participating cohort includes ANZ, BNP Paribas, BNY, Citi, DBS, First Abu Dhabi Bank, FirstRand Bank, HSBC, Itaú Unibanco, Lloyds Bank, Mashreq, MUFG Bank, OCBC, Standard Chartered, UBS, UOB and Wells Fargo. The live transactions form part of a controlled proof-of-concept phase running from July to December 2026, in which banks are testing whether shared ledger infrastructure can support payment commitments across currencies while linking tokenised and conventional settlement rails.
FROM CROSS-BORDER PILOTS TO DOMESTIC SETTLEMENT
Thursday's domestic SGD transactions extend a sequence of live activity on the ledger that began offshore. UOB, working with HSBC, completed live cross-border transactions denominated in Hong Kong dollars in late August, becoming the first Singapore-headquartered bank to execute live transactions on the platform, and signalled at the time that it was preparing Singapore dollar and US dollar transactions on the ledger during September. Citi subsequently processed live transactions with First Abu Dhabi Bank and OCBC, the first on the ledger in the Middle East and Southeast Asia respectively, and said it expected to complete similar transactions with DBS and UOB later in the month.
DBS and Citi executed a live cross-border US dollar payment between Singapore and Citi's New York office on Saturday, 5 September, completing the transfer in minutes and demonstrating that the tokenised-deposit process could function outside standard banking hours. That transaction did not move final settlement onto the blockchain component; Swift's design keeps final settlement within existing mechanisms, including real-time gross settlement systems. The domestic SGD leg announced on Thursday applies the same architecture within a single currency and jurisdiction, testing netting between three counterparties rather than a bilateral corridor.
TOKENISED DEPOSITS AND ALWAYS-ON PAYMENTS
Tokenised deposits are conventional bank deposits represented in digital form using blockchain or distributed-ledger technology and issued by regulated banks, retaining the characteristics of traditional deposits while supporting programmable payments. Rachel Chew, Chief Operating Officer and Co-Head of Digital Assets, Global Transaction Services at DBS, said the bank's pilots demonstrated that clients can transact US dollar and Singapore dollar payments "any time, any day, including over a weekend", adding that DBS has been building its digital asset ecosystem since 2021 and would continue working with partners on interoperability and common standards. Carmen Chan, Deputy Head of Global Transaction Banking at OCBC, said the first live SGD interbank transactions enabled by bank-issued digital money demonstrated the value of industry collaboration while maintaining the resilience of the current financial system.
So Lay Hua, Head of Group Transaction Banking at UOB, said the bank had expanded from Hong Kong dollar to Singapore dollar and US dollar transactions beyond traditional banking hours, pointing to the potential of tokenised infrastructure to move funds across markets, currencies and time zones. The three banks indicated that the infrastructure could eventually support applications in corporate treasury, trade and digital commerce. With Swift's proof of concept scheduled to run through December 2026, the immediate questions concern the volume and variety of transactions participating banks execute, whether netting across multiple counterparties holds up at scale, and how far the model can extend while final settlement continues to depend on established infrastructure.