On September 5, 2026, DBS in Singapore and Citi's New York office executed a cross-border US dollar payment using tokenized deposits via Swift Digital Ledger, completing the process in minutes compared to potentially up to two business days on conventional channels. According to reports, this marked the second live transaction on the ledger, following HSBC and Standard Chartered's August transaction, representing a significant milestone in cross-border banking technology. The transaction demonstrated that customer deposits at banks can now move continuously, breaking traditional banking hours and providing companies with money availability when needed, particularly critical for operations requiring weekend or off-hours transfers.
In his Jackson Hole speech on August 28, 2026, Bank for International Settlements General Manager Pablo Hernández de Cos explained that tokenized deposits maintain settlement in central bank money and preserve the singleness of money: all instruments in a single unit of account are redeemable at par value with finality. For stablecoins, he noted there is no mechanism that enforces such uniformity, creating potential deviations from par value during market stress. As reported by crypto.news, the BIS warned that 24/7 operations can accelerate deposit outflows during times of stress, requiring additional safeguards, while competitive disparities may widen if deposit tokenization is only adopted at individual bank levels on separate networks.
Corporate treasury teams would focus on execution certainty as well as settlement speed, needing to know how much currency they can convert and what price they will receive before committing funds. As reported by crypto.news, for large transactions, market makers must determine how much currency inventory they can carry, how much exposure they will accept outside the most active FX hours, and what fee would compensate them for taking the risk. The existing payment rail has limited value if large conversions become materially more expensive at weekends, with spreads and available transaction sizes changing depending on when businesses request conversions. The DBS-Citi transaction specifically addresses this challenge by enabling 24/7 USD clearing services through Citi Token Services integration with permissioned private blockchain, utilizing entirely within a regulated banking system.
The 21-member consortium of banks including Bank of America, Citi, Goldman Sachs and 18 other institutions committed to create a joint stablecoin company during the second half of 2026, planning to introduce a U.S. dollar stablecoin in the first half of 2027. As reported by crypto.news, the group may later issue tokens tied to other G7 currencies, starting with the euro, with proposed uses including wholesale, institutional, and retail payments as well as settlement for digital asset transactions. The Swift Digital Ledger now has 17 early adopter institutions as of September 2026, with the BIS noting that at that time there was no truly cross-bank and cross-jurisdictional ecosystem of tokenized deposits within an interoperable framework. Citi is expanding this technology through other channels, with Siam Commercial Bank becoming the world's first financial institution client to use Citi Token Services integration with 24/7 USD clearing services during long holidays in the United States.
On June 11, 2026, OJK stated that PT Adhyoka Berkah Maju passed the regulatory sandbox for a Rupiah stablecoin issuer business model named IDRP, along with PT Tennet Depository Indonesia for a non-trading digital financial asset custodian model. According to OJK data, third-party funds in Indonesian banking reached ₹10,294 trillion in May 2026, growing 13.49% year-on-year, showing the substantial economic activity base that could be affected by deposit tokenization. The Indonesia Payment System Blueprint 2030 directs development of BI-RTGS Generation III to respond to blockchain-based transactions, including cross-border needs, while maintaining the Rupiah as the settlement asset. Project Garuda has explored Digital Rupiah, including for inter-institutional use, with the BIS warning that foreign currency-denominated stablecoins open the way for digital dollarization in developing economies.
