Mashreq has completed a live cross-border transaction with Citi on Swift's blockchain ledger, a step toward payments that move around the clock rather than within banking hours.
The transaction used bank-issued tokenised deposits, a form of regulated bank liability designed to operate within existing banking, compliance and settlement frameworks rather than outside them. For UAE businesses and banks that rely on international transfers, the test signals that faster, always-on settlement between institutions is moving from concept to working infrastructure.
What the ledger does
Swift's ledger acts as a shared layer connecting tokenised deposits held by different participating banks, letting value move between them without the delays typical of traditional correspondent banking. More than 40 financial institutions were involved in designing the system before Swift declared it ready for use in July 2026.
Since that announcement, 17 banks have been piloting the ledger specifically for tokenised deposit transactions. The project remains in its minimum viable product phase, meaning the current goal is to prove the concept works reliably rather than to roll it out at full scale. The core aim is straightforward: show that cross-border payments can run in real time, every hour of every day, rather than being tied to the working hours of the banks involved.
