DBS and Citi Settle First Weekend Cross-Border Payment in Minutes on Swift’s Digital Ledger

DBS and Citi said Monday they completed the first weekend cross-border USD payment using tokenized deposits, settling a Saturday payment between Singapore and New York in minutes on Swift’s Digital Ledger.

The transaction was executed on Sept. 5, a Saturday, between DBS in Singapore and Citi’s New York office. Traditional cross-border payments can take up to two business days because of weekends, time zones and bank operating hours; the tokenized deposit transfer removed those gaps, according to the banks. The exact settlement time and the payment amount were not disclosed.

Tokenized deposits represent a bank deposit as a digital token on a blockchain-based ledger, allowing near-instant transfer while remaining a claim on the issuing bank rather than a standalone crypto asset. DBS and Citi described the transfer as a demonstration that institutions can move money outside traditional banking hours.

“Processing a live transaction over a weekend demonstrates that always-on cross-border payments are already a reality,” said Mridula Iyer, Citi’s head of services for Asia South. Rachel Chew, group chief operating officer at DBS, said the banks are showing how tokenized money is moving from experimentation to real-world adoption, “laying the foundations for a more connected, nimble and always-on global financial system.”

The capability targets companies operating across jurisdictions, including e-commerce and digital services firms, for whom weekend payment gaps cost money in delayed supplier payments and frozen working capital, DBS said in its statement.

The weekend payment is the second confirmed live transaction on Swift’s blockchain-based ledger, after HSBC and Standard Chartered completed the first live cross-border transfer in August. Swift said in July that the ledger was ready for initial use and launched a pilot with 17 major banks across six continents, including Citi, DBS, HSBC, BNP Paribas, UBS, ANZ and Standard Chartered. The 53-year-old messaging network, which carries $1.5 quadrillion annually, faces pressure from stablecoins and other settlement rails that operate around the clock.

Further capacity is in the works. Citi is among a group of major US banks planning a separate tokenized deposit network operated by The Clearing House, targeted for launch in the first half of 2027, and DBS and JPMorgan said in November 2025 that they plan a blockchain-based tokenization framework for onchain transfers between their deposit token ecosystems. No timeline has been given for when the weekend tokenized deposit capability moves from tests to regular production use, and neither bank disclosed the transaction amount.