Ant International Pilots Tokenised Deposits With HSBC in the UAE
Pilot payments moved dirhams inside the UAE and dollars to Hong Kong and Singapore, each one initiated on Ant International's WhaleRTP treasury platform.
Nadia Mansour Nadia Mansour covers fintech across the UAE and MENA for Anecdoted -- digital banking, payments licences and the startups building around them. nadia@anecdoted.com
Ant International has taken its tokenised deposit work with HSBC into the Middle East, completing pilot transactions in the UAE through the bank's Tokenised Deposit Service.
Tokenised deposits are bank deposits held as digital tokens on a blockchain. The token stands for a claim on the deposit itself, so funds can be moved in real time and at any hour, without waiting on a cut-off.
Two routes, one shared workflow
The pilots covered two payment routes. One moved UAE dirhams in real time inside the country. The other sent US dollars from the UAE to international markets, Hong Kong and Singapore among them.
Every transfer started on WhaleRTP, Ant International's treasury platform built on blockchain rails. HSBC's Tokenised Deposit Service then executed the payment in real time, using a workflow the two organisations designed jointly.
The two legs test different things. A domestic dirham transfer stays inside a single jurisdiction and a single currency. The dollar leg crosses borders and time zones, the kind of payment that conventional correspondent banking typically routes through several intermediaries and their individual processing windows.
For a treasury operation, that difference is the point. A payments group collecting and disbursing across many markets holds balances in several currencies at once, and the timing of each movement affects how much cash sits idle in each account.
Treasury work since 2019
Ant International has used blockchain and tokenised deposits in its treasury operations since 2019. Its activity spans financial centres including Hong Kong, Singapore, Europe and the US.
WhaleRTP is supported by more than 20 banks, HSBC among them, according to the company. The platform enables real-time transfers in more than 17 currencies.
What the UAE expansion is for
Ant International said the expansion will support its regional growth. It will also help Alipay+, Antom and WorldFirst serve local businesses and travellers.
Kelvin Li, General Manager of Platform Tech and Senior Vice President at Ant International, pointed to a broader ambition. Backed by regional bank partners, he said, the company aims "to establish a global treasury hub in the Middle East in the near future" so it can better support its global operations.
to establish a global treasury hub in the Middle East in the near future
Kyle Boag, Regional Head of Global Payments Solutions at HSBC MENAT, framed the pilots around connectivity. Interoperability between tokenised deposit networks, he said, shows how HSBC can connect different infrastructures to deliver greater value for its clients.
HSBC's Tokenised Deposit Service is now live in six markets, Singapore and the UAE among them.
