DBS, OCBC and UOB have completed live domestic Singapore-dollar interbank transactions using tokenized deposits on Swift’s blockchain-based ledger, marking the first such transactions among Singapore’s three local banks.
The banks described the work as an initial use of infrastructure intended to support payments outside conventional processing windows. They did not disclose the transaction values, number of transfers, participating clients, or a timetable for wider commercial availability.
How the transactions worked
According to the joint announcement published by DBS, payment messages were exchanged between the three banks through Swift’s ledger. The resulting obligations were recorded on each bank’s own tokenized-deposit infrastructure.
Swift’s ledger acted as an orchestration layer, matching and netting the obligations before final settlement took place through existing systems. Swift therefore did not hold customer funds or replace the banks’ underlying deposit accounts and settlement arrangements.
Tokenized deposits are conventional bank deposits represented digitally using blockchain or other distributed-ledger technology. Unlike privately issued cryptoassets, they are liabilities of regulated banks. The approach is intended to make bank money programmable and easier to move across separate digital-asset systems while retaining established compliance and risk controls.
The architecture does not require all three banks to place customer deposits on one shared ledger. Each institution maintains its own tokenized-deposit infrastructure, while Swift coordinates the exchange and reconciliation of obligations between them. The announcement did not specify whether identity checks, sanctions screening, privacy controls, or exception handling formed part of these transactions.
Asian Banking & Finance independently reported the transactions and said the banks are testing the technology for payments beyond traditional processing hours. It also reported that the obligations were settled through existing systems after being matched and netted on the Swift ledger.
Ledger entered controlled initial use in July
The Singapore transactions follow Swift’s July 9 announcement that its ledger was ready for initial use. Seventeen banks across six continents were preparing to pilot live tokenized-deposit transactions, including DBS, OCBC and UOB.
Swift said at the time that the ledger would expand in functionality and availability after an initial controlled go-live phase. The first use case was framed around 24-hour cross-border payments, while the three Singapore banks used the system for domestic Singapore-dollar obligations.
The new work follows separate experiments by the participating banks. DBS said its pilots have enabled US-dollar and Singapore-dollar payments outside conventional hours, including weekends. OCBC cited a live cross-border US-dollar transaction, while UOB said it had handled Hong Kong-dollar, Singapore-dollar and US-dollar transactions beyond traditional banking hours.
Banks see corporate payment applications
The banks said shared-ledger infrastructure could eventually support corporate treasury, trade and digital-commerce services. Potential benefits include round-the-clock processing and interoperability between banks’ separate tokenized-deposit systems.
The announcement does not establish that the service is generally available to corporate customers. It also does not provide measures of settlement speed, cost savings, liquidity efficiency, system capacity, or operational resilience from the Singapore-dollar transactions.
Because final settlement occurred through existing systems, the announcement does not show that the pilot provided end-to-end settlement on the blockchain ledger. The banks did not describe the legal treatment of the tokenized obligations or identify any regulatory approvals specific to the transactions.
For Singapore, the collaboration shows that the three domestic banks can exchange and reconcile tokenized-deposit obligations through a shared layer without placing all deposits on a single bank ledger. Further disclosures will be needed to assess the scale, customer access, and commercial impact of the infrastructure.
Featured image: Guo Xin Goh on Unsplash