OCBC And Ant International Launch Live Tokenised Deposit Solution

OCBC has partnered with Ant International to launch a live tokenised deposit solution enabling round-the-clock cross-border treasury management between Singapore and Malaysia, marking a transition toward real-world blockchain settlement at scale.

"OCBC has been a first mover in bringing innovative transaction banking solutions to market, and this latest milestone with Ant International demonstrates our commitment to helping corporates navigate an increasingly connected and fast-moving business environment," said Ms Carmen Chan, Deputy Head, Global Transaction Banking, OCBC, in a corporate press release.

Platform Mechanics and Currency Scope

Under the arrangement, Ant International can mobilise Singapore Dollar (SGD) and US Dollar (USD) denominated tokenised deposits on a 24/7 basis. This infrastructure facilitates near real-time settlements of treasury transactions between the firm's entities across the Singapore and Malaysia corridor.

Delivered through Ant International's WhaleRTP, a blockchain-based wholesale settlement platform, the solution operates via OCBC's blockchain capabilities to automate liquidity movement. Traditional cross-border corporate treasury operations frequently contend with cut-off times, intermediary correspondent banking delays, and limited weekend operability, whereas this always-on architecture removes standard banking-hour bottlenecks.

"Through the Whale platform, we are enabling more efficient cross-border treasury across our ecosystem to unlock near real-time liquidity that can better support our businesses and our customers," said Mr Kelvin Li, General Manager of Platform Tech and Senior Vice President at Ant International, in the official announcement.

Moving Beyond Experimental Proofs-of-Concept

Tokenised deposits represent blockchain-based digital representations of commercial bank money, differing from public cryptocurrencies or central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) by remaining direct liabilities of the issuing regulated commercial institution. Unlike early-stage industry pilots that tested tokenisation within closed sandbox environments, the OCBC and Ant International deployment represents a live production rollout handling operational capital.

Financial institutions across Southeast Asia have increasingly invested in distributed ledger technology to streamline intra-group liquidity management. By utilizing programmable deposit tokens, multinational corporations can execute automated cash sweeps and liquidity pooling without waiting for manual ledger reconciliations or standard clearinghouse processing windows.