OCBC Bank and Ant International have announced a strategic partnership aimed at streamlining cross-border fund settlements using tokenised deposits and leveraging advanced encryption and AI.
The collaboration will prioritise enabling real-time payments between Singapore and Malaysia, 24/7, via Ant International’s Whale platform.
This platform utilises blockchain technology, advanced encryption, and AI to enhance the speed, efficiency, and transparency of cross-border transactions.
This demonstrates how blockchain can support evolving treasury and liquidity needs.
The partnership marks OCBC‘s first foray into tokenization with Ant International and builds upon their existing relationship.
OCBC has previously collaborated with Ant International, joining Alipay+’s network in 2023 to facilitate cross-border payments between Singapore, Malaysia, and South Korea.
Melvyn Low, Head of Global Transaction Banking, OCBC, said,
“In this collaboration with Ant International, we will leverage our joint blockchain capabilities to enable faster, seamless multi-currency clearing and settlement for Ant International’s intra-group treasury and liquidity management.
With the corporate treasury function becoming increasingly strategic and a key driver of a business’ bottom-line, this demonstration of how blockchain can help global businesses better meet their evolving treasury and liquidity needs is very timely.”
Kelvin Li, Head of Platform Tech at Ant International, added,
“By partnering with one of the leading banks in Asia, we hope to combine OCBC’s deep knowledge of the Singapore and Malaysia markets, with Ant International’s technological expertise and innovations in blockchain, to develop more effective global treasury management solutions for businesses in Asia and beyond so they can trade and transact across borders more seamlessly.”
Featured image: (Clockwise from left to right) Raymond Yeung, Head of China Corporates, OCBC Hong Kong, Kelvin Li, Head of Platform Tech at Ant International, Douglas Feagin, President of Ant International and Melvyn Low, Head of Global Transaction Banking at OCBC
