DBS and Ant International are expanding their partnership to accelerate cross-border payments and advance new fintech solutions across the region.

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed at the Singapore Fintech Festival 2025, bringing together Ant International’s key businesses, including Alipay+, Antom, WorldFirst and Bettr Platform Tech.

It outlines plans to strengthen connectivity, scale digital payment use and support more inclusive financial services for businesses and consumers.

As part of the partnership, DBS PayLah! will join the Alipay+ ecosystem, allowing more than three million users to scan Alipay+ QR codes and pay at over 150 million merchants in more than 100 markets.

DBS and Ant International are also reviewing a bank-to-wallet model for real-time remittances between DBS customers and the 1.8 billion user accounts on the Alipay+ network.

This proposed setup uses ISO 20022 messaging standards and the SWIFT network, while additional solutions to simplify customer transfers are under evaluation.

SME support will be expanded through DBS’ collaboration with Antom, Ant International’s unified merchant payment and digitisation services provider.

Both organisations are studying digital tools to help SMEs progress in their digital transformation journey, including Antom’s MCP-based agentic payment approach, which combines alternative payment methods, a payment mandate model and AI-driven capabilities.

DBS will also collaborate with WorldFirst to broaden same-day and near-instant cross-border payment options for SME clients.

This renewed partnership builds on existing work between the two organisations on tokenised deposits and other areas of fintech innovation.

Peng Yang, CEO of Ant International, said,

“We are proud to deepen our partnership with DBS, whom we have already been working closely with since 2013, on various initiatives including SME payment solutions and most recently, tokenised deposits.

With a shared vision on enhancing inclusive growth for local and regional commerce, as well as nurturing local innovation and talent, we look forward to bringing our know-how in payments and digitalisation together to create even stronger synergy to continuously boost the digital economy in this region.”

Tan Su Shan, CEO of DBS, said,

“DBS is pleased to have the privilege to expand our partnership with Ant International. They are a truly like-minded partner in purpose-driven innovation, having demonstrated a shared vision for leveraging cutting-edge technology to create more efficient and inclusive financial ecosystems.

By synergising our strengths, we can unlock new avenues for growth, accelerate future-ready solutions like tokenised deposits and agentic payments – and reimagine the future of finance to drive greater impact for our clients and customers.”

Featured image: (From left) Tan Su Shan, CEO of DBS, Loy Hwee Chuan, Segment Head of Telecommunications, Media & Tech, Hong Kong and GBA, DBS, Edward Yue, Alipay+ General Manager for SEA, ANZ and South Asia at Ant International, Peng Yang, CEO of Ant International