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Citi's Services business pioneers live transactions on Swift's ledger, collaborating with FAB and OCBC to redefine always-on global payments. DBS and UOB Set to Join Initiative, Expanding Always-On Payment Capabilities September 02, 2026 Highlights. * Citi, First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) are the first to conduct live transactions in USD in the Middle East and Southeast Asia regions, respectively * Citi expects to conduct similar transactions with other collaborating banks, including DBS and United Overseas Bank (UOB) later this month * These firsts continue to advance Citi's work to deliver always-on capabilities to support client needs NEW YORK - Citi announced today that it has successfully processed live transactions on Swift's blockchain-based ledger, marking a significant milestone in its strategy to deliver always-on, cross-currency, and interoperable payment solutions for its institutional clients. As the first U.S. bank to conduct live native ledger transactions, Citi has collaborated with First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) on this global initiative. The initiative is a key part of the strategy for Citi's Services business to advance its digital asset capabilities across cash and securities. It builds on newly integrated solutions, such as 24/7 USD Clearing, Citi Token Services, and Citi Custody+, to enable real-time, multi-bank, cross-border payments, as well as securities and collateral management for corporate and institutional clients. Citi's 24/7 USD Clearing solution serves over 300 bank clients globally, and Citi Token Services processes around $1 billion in transactions through its blockchain-based platform. This reflects the natural evolution of a core focus for Citi Services: delivering instant, real-time, and always-on capabilities that bridge its payments and securities infrastructure with the emerging landscape of tokenized multi-bank networks and assets. The live transactions already completed, include the first to be processed in the Middle East region with FAB, and the first in the Southeast Asia region with OCBC. These operations are an important step in demonstrating the viability of using distributed ledger technology to provide uninterrupted, 24/7 payments and settlements that are not restricted by traditional cut-off times or weekend closures. Citi expects to conduct similar transactions with other key collaborators later this month including DBS and United Overseas Bank (UOB). The pilot transactions are intended to be part of a focused, controlled proof-of-concept phase running from July to December 2026. The use of shared blockchain infrastructure to support the movement of tokenized deposits and more broadly, securities, will also create a more efficient market for instant cross-border payments and securities settlements. The global pilot on Swift's blockchain ledger is a primary example of this, demonstrating Citi's commitment to supporting an interoperable ecosystem for both cash and securities. Citigroup, Inc. is proud to be a leader in this pivotal initiative, working alongside Swift and its esteemed bank collaborators to continue to transform the landscape of always-on payments, settlements and liquidity. This pilot represents a crucial step in exploring how Citigroup, Inc. can leverage the power of shared ledger technology to create a more efficient, interoperable, and always-on global financial system that supports both payments and collateral movement. Its active engagement in the design and execution of Swift's ledger MVP ensures that its clients' interests are at the forefront as Citigroup, Inc. shape the future of interoperability between digital and traditional currencies." Debopama Sen Head of Payments, Services Swift's ledger initiative is designed to bridge traditional finance with the emerging world of digital assets. It utilizes a shared blockchain-based infrastructure to enable instant payment commitment through tokenized deposits, while leveraging the safety and trust of existing settlement models, including real-time gross settlement (RTGS) for final settlement. This innovative model promises key benefits such as 24/7/365 service, faster credit for beneficiaries, and improved liquidity efficiency for banks. Rachel Chew, Group Chief Operating Officer and Co-Head of Digital Assets, Global Transaction Services at DBS, said: "Initiatives such as the Swift Digital Ledger are bridging traditional banking infrastructures with emerging digital networks. By fostering deeper interoperability across these different ecosystems, we can achieve seamless transactions and establish common standards, which are essential for the wider adoption of tokenized money." Carmen Chan, Deputy Head of Global Transaction Banking at Singapore's OCBC, added: "Our successful live pilot transactions with Citi marks an important step towards enabling bank-issued digital money to move efficiently and securely across borders. For corporates, this could mean faster access to funds, greater payment certainty and improved liquidity management in an increasingly always-on economy. Interoperable shared infrastructure can help connect banking networks across jurisdictions while preserving the trust and reach of the global banking system. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Swift and our banking partners to advance more efficient, transparent and resilient global payments." So Lay Hua, Head of Group Transaction Banking, UOB said, "Our upcoming U.S. dollar transaction with Citi on Swift's ledger underscores the power of industry collaboration in building the next generation of payment infrastructure. These transactions demonstrate how banks can enable faster, more seamless and interoperable payment flows across markets. As the One Bank for ASEAN, UOB is committed to contributing our regional network and transaction banking expertise to shape the future of payments." About Citi. Citi is a preeminent banking partner for institutions with cross-border needs, a global leader in wealth management and a valued personal bank in its home market of the United States. Citi does business in more than 180 countries and jurisdictions, providing corporations, governments, investors, institutions and individuals with a broad range of financial products and services.

Taurus links digital asset platforms to Swift's blockchain ledger. Taurus expects first institutional clients to connect in days, with initial DLT transactions through its platforms expected within weeks. Digital asset infrastructure provider Taurus has integrated its tokenization and custody platforms with Swift's blockchain-based ledger. Taurus said Wednesday in an announcement shared with Cointelegraph that its clients can connect their existing digital asset infrastructure to the ledger for payments using bank-issued tokenized deposits. The first client integrations are expected to go live within days, with the first distributed ledger technology transactions facilitated through its platforms expected within weeks. Swift announced in July that the ledger was ready for initial use, with 17 banks across six continents preparing to pilot live transactions using tokenized deposits. Standard Chartered and HSBC have since completed the ledger's first live cross-border transaction, connecting their separate tokenized deposit systems. The international payments network's ledger serves as an orchestration layer for round-the-clock cross-border payments using tokenized deposits on participating banks' balance sheets. It coordinates transfers between institutions before final settlement through existing arrangements, including real-time gross settlement systems.

How a global financial messaging network secured millions of containers and defeated alert fatigue. Principal Product Marketing Manager For a network that helps the financial community securely exchange payment instructions representing the equivalent of the world's GDP every 3 days, security isn't just a concern, it's the number one priority. At Red Hat Summit 2026, Praveen Siddu, Senior Platform Architect at Swift, and Otmane Benali, Container Platform Product Owner at Swift, alongside Ryan Riley, Senior Solutions Architect at Red Hat, shared how they modernized container platform security. Their journey details how Swift, a financial cooperative connecting over 11,500 institutions in more than 200 countries, established zero-touch automation to manage security policies and vulnerabilities across hundreds of clusters. Figure 1. Otmane Benali, Container Platform Product Owner, and Praveen Siddu, Senior Platform Architect with Swift, alongside Ryan Riley, Senior Solutions Architect with Red Hat Managing millions of container images across multiple data centers presents a massive tracking challenge. If even 1 image contains a critical vulnerability, finding where that risk lives across a sprawling hybrid cloud environment is a complex task. Doing so manually is impossible. Balancing massive transaction volume with rigorous security. For Swift, downtime or a security breach carries global macroeconomic consequences. During the session, the team illuminated the sheer scale of their operational environment. Every 3 days, the equivalent of the world's GDP passes through the Swift network. That indicates the scale of the economies and supply chains that count on this transaction service, making availability and security its highest priorities. Otmane Benali Container Platform Product Owner, Swift To protect this critical flow, the platform team deployed Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes. This technology secures workloads across the entire software lifecycle, spanning the build, deployment, and runtime phases. Reversing the architectural flow to eliminate network congestion. A common pitfall in enterprise security is building architectures where a central configuration management database (CMDB) must reach out and poll every individual cluster for vulnerability data. As Swift's network grew, this pull-based method consumed excessive network bandwidth and introduced significant operational complexity. To solve this, the engineering team designed a stateless central architecture that reversed the flow of information. The architecture consists of an agent running locally in each Red Hat OpenShift environment. This agent gathers container image data and sends it to a central object store. A central scanning job then queries a single Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security central instance to match the images against known Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures entries. This centralized engine enriches the data with ownership mapping from Git and sends the clean, prioritized risk profile back to the CMDB. By preparing the security data centrally and feeding it directly into the database, the team simplified the architecture so that it could remain resilient. If any cluster is deleted, the system heals automatically because the central state is easily rebuilt from code. Automating regression testing for security policies. Upgrading security tools or modifying policies can sometimes introduce unexpected disruptions or false positives, which increases alert fatigue for application developers. To prevent this, the team instituted an automated regression testing pipeline. Before promoting a new policy or a new version of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security from development to testing and production, the platform team runs it in a sandbox environment. This sandbox contains test workloads that are designed to trigger specific policy violations. The team verifies that the new version of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security accurately flags the simulated violations. This regression check prevents security updates from disrupting standard developer workflows or creating unnecessary noise. By combining daily automated scans of running images, including short-lived pods, with zero-touch certificate management via Argo CD and HashiCorp Vault, the cooperative has successfully minimized manual security tasks. Security teams only interject when a high-priority vulnerability is verified, allowing application developers to maintain velocity while preserving global trust. Next steps. Ready to strengthen your container security and reduce operational noise? Choose the path that fits your organization's goals: * Read the technical details: Learn how to implement lifecycle security and policy guardrails by downloading the official Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes datasheet. * Try the technology: Evaluate the platform in your own environment by registering for a 60-day self-service Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes trial. Product trial Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform | Product trial. A consistent hybrid cloud foundation for building and scaling containerized applications.