Ant Group Taps HSBC’s Tokenized Deposit Service for Cross-Border Transactions

HSBC has onboarded Ant International as the first client to use its Tokenised Deposit Service (TDS) for cross-border payments.
TDS leverages distributed ledger technology to turn bank deposits into transferable tokens, enabling instant settlement, programmable payments, and 24/7 treasury operations.
The partnership signals the beginning of commercial acceptance for tokenized deposits as a regulated alternative to stablecoins.

UK-based global banking giant HSBC announced this week that Ant Group’s digital finance leader Ant International, a global payments leader serving millions of merchants worldwide, has become the first client to use the bank’s Tokenised Deposit Service (TDS) for cross-border payments.

The news comes five months after HSBC initially launched TDS for corporate cash management in Hong Kong. TDS relies on distributed ledger technology (DLT) to instantly settle remittances and payments. The DLT allows HSBC’s clients to create digital records of their traditional, fiat deposits. While HSBC maintains the fiat deposits, each one of the digital records on the DLT is a token that can be transferred.

HSBC anticipates that TDS will set a new standard for liquidity management. In part, this is because, unlike stablecoins, which are issued by private companies or protocols, tokenized deposits remain liabilities of regulated banks, bringing blockchain efficiency into traditional finance.

HSBC aims to help its corporate clients leverage TDS to improve treasury management. The bank created a separate, secure platform to allow clients to transfer funds past cut-off times and around the clock, without having to wait for batch processing, with automated reconciliation, greater speed, enhanced security, and seamless integrations with treasury systems.

Tokenized deposits can also be used for programmable payments, a capability that allows payments to be triggered based on preset rules to streamline cashflow management.

For Ant International, leveraging TDS for cross-border transactions will help streamline treasury operations, enable around-the-clock settlement, and support its mission to deliver faster, more efficient financial services to its global partners.

Ant sees HSBC’s tokenized deposits as a way to scale its global treasury operations and complement its push into cross-border digital finance. “Our relationship has enabled us to work across different geographies and cover a wide range of global payment businesses,” said Ant International General Manager of Platform Tech Kelvin Li. “The Tokenised Deposit Service is one of the main means to enable us to do real-time payments globally and also enable us to achieve real-time treasury management on a global basis.”

HSBC’s rollout of tokenized deposits with Ant International may mark a change of how organizations think about corporate treasury. With programmable payments, 24/7 settlement, and global reach, tokenized deposits are moving from concept to reality. This is especially true in the commercial space, where tokenized deposits could soon become a standard feature of cross-border finance.