Citi and DBS announced on September 6 that they completed a cross-border USD payment using tokenized deposits on the Swift Digital Ledger, a blockchain platform developed by the global financial messaging network Swift. The transaction, conducted over the weekend when traditional finance infrastructure was closed, settled in minutes—significantly faster than the typical two-day settlement period for conventional cross-border payments.
The Swift Digital Ledger was created to offer round-the-clock settlement capabilities. The pilot program currently includes 17 banks from six continents and aims to enable faster and more flexible money movement across borders while supporting future technologies like programmable money and agentic commerce.
Rachel Chew, Group Chief Operating Officer and Co-Head of Digital Assets at DBS, said the demonstration shows tokenized money progressing from experimentation to practical use. "Swift Digital Ledger is bridging traditional banking infrastructures with emerging digital networks to enable deeper interoperability that benefits clients," Chew stated.
Mridula Iyer, Citi's Asia South Head of Services, characterized the transfer as a milestone reflecting commitment to always-on, interoperable financial infrastructure. "This work is a natural extension of our strategy in the Services business to integrate our traditional cash management and securities capabilities with emerging tokenised networks and assets," Iyer said.
According to data from rwa.xyz as of September 7, the global distributed value of tokenized real-world assets stands at $39.18 billion, approaching the $40 billion mark.
