Singapore’s biggest bank DBS rolls out blockchain-powered ‘treasury tokens’ pilot

DBS Bank, the largest bank in Singapore by assets, today initiated a pilot of “DBS Treasury Tokens” in collaboration with Ant International, the international division of Alibaba’s fintech affiliate Ant Group. This project aims to improve treasury and liquidity management.

In a statement shared with The Block, DBS explained that this pilot operates on its permissioned blockchain, facilitating multi-currency treasury and liquidity management for Ant International entities in various markets.

Specifically, the initiative aims to help Ant International reduce the settlement of intra-group transactions “from potentially days to seconds,” DBS said. “This optimizes intra-group liquidity and working capital, providing corporate treasurers with greater visibility, predictability and control over the entire group’s cash position,” the bank added.

The new pilot 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,” said Lim Soon Chong, group head of global transaction services at DBS Bank, in the statement. 

“DBS’ permissioned blockchain also forms the building block for new efficiencies and capabilities in traditional banking services, such as programmable, fractionalised and atomic value transfer,” Lim added.

Kelvin Li, head of platform tech at Ant International, said that the pair has already seen use cases in areas including instant tax refund services and cross-border payments for small and midsize enterprises on the company’s Whale platform.

DBS Bank’s latest treasury tokens project originates from the bank’s participation in Project Orchid and Project Guardian — both led by the Monetary Authority of Singapore in a bid to explore the benefits of tokenization.