OCBC said on Wednesday, October 7, 2026, that it had become the first bank to collaborate with Ant International on a tokenized deposit solution for always-on treasury management and liquidity movement between Singapore and Malaysia. To start, Ant will be able to mobilize Singapore dollar and US dollar tokenized deposits 24/7, settling treasury transactions between its own entities in near real time. The solution runs on WhaleRTP, Ant’s blockchain-based treasury platform.
The launch came a day after Ant announced pilot transactions in the United Arab Emirates through HSBC’s Tokenised Deposit Service (TDS), which made it the bank’s first client in the Middle East to use the service. Neither announcement disclosed a transaction count, a volume, or a value.
A round-the-clock treasury link between Singapore and Malaysia
A tokenized deposit is a commercial bank deposit represented on a distributed ledger. OCBC says each transfer leaves a transparent and immutable audit trail, which reduces manual reconciliation. The bank pitches the product against the limits of conventional cross-border liquidity moves: batch processing cycles, operating hours, and currency and settlement cut-off times. The aim is more efficient intragroup liquidity and working capital management for Ant and its businesses.
Carmen Chan, deputy head of global transaction banking at OCBC, said the milestone “illustrates how tokenisation is moving beyond experimentation to deliver tangible, real-world value for treasury and working capital management at scale.” Ledger Insights reported that Ant already had tokenized deposit partnerships with both OCBC and HSBC and had now expanded each.
Ant pilots dirham and dollar transfers through HSBC in the UAE
Ant said on Tuesday, October 6, in a release datelined Abu Dhabi and Singapore, that it had completed pilot transactions on two corridors. The first carried real-time, dirham-denominated tokenized deposit transactions within the UAE. The second moved US dollar tokenized deposits from the UAE to international markets, including Hong Kong and Singapore. Ant initiated the transfers on WhaleRTP and HSBC executed them in real time through its TDS, on a workflow the two companies designed together.
| Bank | Announced | Where | Currencies | Stage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OCBC | Oct. 7, 2026 | Between Ant entities in Singapore and Malaysia | SGD and USD, to start | Solution launched; no transactions disclosed |
| HSBC | Oct. 6, 2026 | Within the UAE; from the UAE to markets including Hong Kong and Singapore | AED within the UAE; USD cross-border | Pilot transactions completed |
According to the release, HSBC’s TDS is already live in six markets (Hong Kong, Singapore, Luxembourg, the UK, the US, and the UAE) and supports multiple currencies, including the offshore yuan (CNH), Hong Kong dollar, Singapore dollar, euro, pound, US dollar, and UAE dirham. “Interoperability between tokenised deposit networks demonstrates how HSBC can connect different infrastructures to deliver greater value for our clients,” said Kyle Boag, regional head of global payments solutions at HSBC MENAT.
Kelvin Li, general manager of platform tech and senior vice president at Ant International, set out a goal: “With the support of regional bank partners such as HSBC, we aim to establish a global treasury hub in the Middle East in the near future to better support our global operations.” Ant ties the expansion to regional growth for its Alipay+, Antom, and WorldFirst businesses.
A partnership with HSBC that dates to 2020
Ant says it has used blockchain and tokenized deposit technology for real-time treasury management since 2019, in markets including Hong Kong, Singapore, Europe, and the US. Its partnership with HSBC dates to 2020. Ant was the first client of HSBC’s TDS when the bank launched the service in Hong Kong in May 2025, after a pilot on Ant’s Whale platform, and completed an intragroup transfer by converting US dollar deposits held with HSBC into tokens on the bank’s distributed ledger. Ant said at the time that more than a third of its 2024 transactions were processed on-chain through its Whale platform.