DBS Partners with Ant International to Launch Treasury Tokens for Cross-Border Liquidity Management

DBS and Ant International collaborate on a treasury token pilot project for cross-border liquidity management. The DBS treasury token aims to reduce settlement times for intragroup transactions from days to seconds. Ant International's Whale platform utilises blockchain and AI to enhance fund transfer efficiency.

Credit: Reuters

Operating on DBS’ permissioned blockchain, the project will empower Ant International, the operator of the popular mobile payment service Alipay+, to utilise the digital token for immediate, multicurrency treasury and liquidity management across various markets, as announced by the bank on Tuesday.

Moreover, DBS’ blockchain is seamlessly integrated with Ant International’s Whale platform, a global treasury management solution utilising blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the efficiency and transparency of fund transfers between bank accounts. Ant International is an affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, the parent company of the South China Morning Post.

The DBS treasury token proves beneficial for large enterprises like Ant International by reducing the settlement duration of intragroup transactions "from potentially days to seconds," according to the bank. It offers corporate treasurers enhanced visibility, predictability, and control over the cash positions of different entities.

Lim Soon Chong, the group head of global transaction services at DBS, highlighted, "This new capability comes at a time when the treasury needs of businesses are evolving to meet the rise of e-commerce and on-demand services on a 24/7 basis."

Kelvin Li, Ant International’s head of platform technology, expressed that the partnership with DBS will tackle challenges such as cost reduction and transaction risks associated with cross-border payments. The Whale platform has already demonstrated its utility in areas like instant tax refund services and cross-border payments for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Meanwhile, DBS aims for its blockchain to unlock novel efficiencies and capabilities in traditional banking services, including "programmable, fractionalised and atomic [instant] value transfer," as stated by Lim. This latest project by DBS stems from the bank’s involvement in the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s tokenisation projects, notably tested in Project Guardian, an initiative exploring asset tokenisation, in which Ant Group is also engaged for its treasury management solution.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) is currently exploring a multi-country central bank digital currency (CBDC) project, leveraging digital currencies based on distributed ledger technology to facilitate instant cross-border payments and settlements. Additionally, the HKMA has introduced a "wCBDC" pilot to enhance interbank wholesale settlements using tokenised money, a stablecoin sandbox for companies to trial cryptocurrency tokens pegged to fiat currency in the city, and the second phase of its retail e-HKD digital currency pilot project.

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• DBS and Ant International collaborate on a treasury token pilot project for cross-border liquidity management

• The DBS treasury token aims to reduce settlement times for intragroup transactions from days to seconds

• Ant International's Whale platform utilises blockchain and AI to enhance fund transfer efficiency

Source: SCMP