In a landmark move signed in Singapore, Swiss banking giant UBS has partnered with Ant International—Alipay’s global fintech arm—to revolutionize cross-border treasury operations through tokenized deposits. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) leverages UBS’s Digital Cash platform, a blockchain-based digital money solution piloted in 2024, enabling Ant to conduct real-time multicurrency transfers across Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.

Traditional settlement rails, plagued by delays and limited hours, will be bypassed by permissioned digital ledgers, synchronizing liquidity in minutes rather than days. “We share a common belief in the potential of these technologies to transform cross-border payments,” said Kelvin Li, Ant International’s global platform tech manager. UBS Singapore head Young Jin Yee added, “This sets standards for transparency and efficiency.”

As Singapore cements its role in initiatives like Project Guardian, this collaboration signals tokenized bank money’s rise as a global payments standard, boosting efficiency for institutional treasuries in Asia’s burgeoning crypto ecosystem.