OCBC and Ant International now move money between Singapore and Malaysia around the clock, using tokenised deposits

Banks close for the weekend. Money, increasingly, does not. On 7 October, OCBC launched a tokenised deposit service with Ant International that lets the payments group move Singapore dollar and US dollar liquidity between its entities in Singapore and Malaysia around the clock, with near real time settlement, as reported by The Paypers.

It sounds like back office plumbing, and in a sense it is. But it is also a glimpse of how banks intend to compete in a world of stablecoins and always on digital payments: by turning ordinary bank deposits into programmable tokens that move instantly, while keeping them inside the regulated banking system.

What OCBC has built

The service lets Ant International mobilise tokenised deposits in Singapore and US dollars at any time of day or night, settling treasury transactions between its group entities in Singapore and Malaysia almost instantly. It runs through Ant's WhaleRTP platform, and OCBC says it is the first bank to work with Ant on this kind of arrangement, according to OCBC.

Crucially, the money remains a commercial bank deposit. The tokens represent claims on OCBC, with the same legal standing and protections as ordinary deposits. What changes is how they move: each transfer is recorded on a blockchain, which creates a transparent and tamper resistant audit trail and allows settlement outside normal banking hours.

For a company like Ant International, which processes payments across many markets, that matters. Moving liquidity between its own entities quickly reduces the amount of cash it needs to keep idle in each location and lets it respond to demand in real time.

The problem it solves

Traditional cross border treasury is slow. Transfers are held back by batch processing cycles, operating hours, currency cut off times and the need for intermediary banks. A payment sent late on a Friday might not arrive until Monday, leaving money in limbo and forcing companies to hold large buffers.

Tokenised deposits remove many of those frictions. Because the tokens can move on a shared ledger at any time, settlement no longer depends on banking hours. For multinational companies managing cash across borders, that can free up significant liquidity and reduce costs.

Tokenised deposits are banks' answer to stablecoins: the speed of digital money with the safety of a bank account.

The arrangement builds on years of groundwork. OCBC and Ant International signed an agreement in November 2024 to explore tokenised deposits for global treasury management, with an initial focus on real time cross border payments between Singapore and Malaysia, as announced via Business Wire. The October launch turns that exploration into a live service.

Tokenised deposits versus stablecoins

The launch arrives as stablecoins are booming across Southeast Asia, from card spending to cross border transfers. Stablecoins are issued by non bank companies and backed by reserves, while tokenised deposits are issued by banks and represent ordinary deposits. Both aim to make digital money move faster, but they sit in very different places in the financial system.

For corporate treasurers, tokenised deposits have clear advantages. They are held at a regulated bank, they do not require converting money into a separate digital asset, and they fit within existing accounting and regulatory frameworks. For banks, they offer a way to keep deposits and clients that might otherwise drift toward stablecoin based alternatives.

OCBC has been active on this front. In September 2026, it completed a cross border tokenised deposit transaction in US dollars with Citi on Swift's ledger, another sign that major banks are testing how tokenised money can work across institutions.

What it means for Asian banking

The OCBC and Ant service is part of a broader shift in how Asian banks think about payments. Singapore's central bank has encouraged experimentation with tokenisation through its industry projects, and banks in Hong Kong, Japan and elsewhere are exploring similar ideas. The goal is to modernise settlement without abandoning the safety of the regulated banking system.

The implications are worth considering:

• Corporate clients can manage cross border liquidity more efficiently, around the clock.
• Banks gain a competitive response to stablecoins and fintech payment platforms.
• Blockchain records improve transparency and auditability for treasury flows.
• Interoperability between banks and platforms remains a challenge to solve.

We have tracked banks' moves into digital money, including the bank consortium exploring stablecoins for 2027, as institutions decide whether to issue tokens, tokenise deposits or both.

Why Singapore and Malaysia

The choice of corridor is no accident. Singapore and Malaysia are deeply connected economies, with heavy flows of trade, investment and workers between them. Many companies, including payment firms, have entities in both countries and need to move money between them frequently.

The two countries are also linked through real time payment connections, such as the integration of their national payment systems, and both have regulators open to financial innovation. That makes the corridor a natural testing ground for new settlement technologies before they are expanded to other markets.

If the service proves successful, it could be extended to more currencies and countries, and to other corporate clients beyond Ant International. That would turn a single pilot corridor into a broader network of always on bank money across Asia.

Bank money for an always on world

OCBC's launch with Ant International shows that banks are not ceding the future of digital money to stablecoin issuers. By tokenising deposits, they can offer the speed and programmability that modern businesses want while keeping funds safely inside the banking system.

The question now is scale. A single corporate client in a single corridor is a start. The real test will be whether tokenised deposits can connect many banks, many clients and many currencies, creating a network that rivals the convenience of stablecoins with the trust of regulated banks.

OCBC and Ant International have shown what bank money can look like in an always on economy: deposits that move instantly across borders, recorded on a blockchain, without leaving the regulated banking system. It is a quiet but significant answer to the rise of stablecoins. If banks can scale tokenised deposits across more clients and corridors, the future of digital money in Asia may belong as much to banks as to the crypto firms that first popularised it.