With these tokens, Ant International will be able to manage its multi-currency treasury and liquidity instantly on DBS’s permissioned blockchain. Photo: Bloomberg

DBS has launched DBS Treasury Tokens, a blockchain-powered treasury and liquid management solution, in partnership with Ant International.

With these tokens, Ant International will be able to manage its multi-currency treasury and liquidity instantly on DBS’s permissioned blockchain for its entities across multiple markets.

The bank’s permissioned blockchain is integrated with Ant International’s Whale platform, enabling the group to manage its intragroup liquidity on a 24/7 basis. Whale is a next-generation treasury management solution that uses blockchain technology, advanced encryption and artificial intelligence to improve the efficiency and transparency of fund movements between bank accounts.

On July 15, Ant International and BNP Paribas announced their partnership for several things including exploring innovations in tokenised deposits for global treasury management with Ant International’s Whale platform. Ant International will also tap on BNP Paribas’ infrastructure to further develop Whale.

“This milestone with DBS is an important step forward in addressing challenges like reducing costs and transaction risks for cross-border payments. We have already seen successful use cases on our Whale platform in areas such as instant tax refund services and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME) cross-border payments, and we will continue working together with industry partners and leveraging blockchain technology to enable more open and inclusive cross-border payments,” says Kelvin Li, head of platform tech at Ant International.

“This new capability 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,” adds Lim Soon Chong, group head of global transaction services at DBS. “DBS Treasury Tokens and our partnership with Ant International demonstrates how corporates can seize such opportunities with full confidence that their liquidity management capabilities can scale in tandem. DBS’s permissioned blockchain also forms the building block for new efficiencies and capabilities in traditional banking services, such as programmable, fractionalised and atomic value transfer.”