In a strategic move set to redefine digital finance across Asia, DBS Bank and Ant International have announced a significant expansion of their partnership during the Singapore Fintech Festival 2025, leveraging cutting-edge blockchain and AI technologies to drive financial inclusion and transform cross-border payments for millions of consumers and businesses.
The enhanced collaboration, formalized through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), represents a powerful alliance between one of Asia’s leading banking groups and a global digital payments pioneer. This partnership aims to tackle some of the most persistent challenges in finance through technological innovation, with initiatives spanning seamless cross-border payments, near-instant remittances, SME digitalization, and advanced blockchain applications.
Forging the Future of Cross-Border Payments
Global QR Code Payment Integration
In a landmark development for consumer convenience, DBS PayLah! will integrate with the Alipay+ ecosystem, enabling over three million users in Singapore to make payments using QR codes at more than 150 million merchants across over 100 markets worldwide. This transformation effectively converts a primarily domestic e-wallet into a powerful global payment tool, significantly simplifying international travel and commerce for Singaporean consumers.
Revolutionizing Remittances
Looking beyond retail payments, the two financial giants are exploring a groundbreaking bank-to-wallet solution that could enable real-time remittances between DBS customers and the staggering 1.8 billion user accounts on the Alipay+ network. This system would utilize ISO 20022 messaging standards and the SWIFT network to potentially make cross-border money transfers as seamless as sending a message, representing a significant advancement in global remittance services.
Empowering Businesses and Driving Innovation
Accelerating SME Digital Transformation
Recognizing the critical role of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in regional economies, the partnership includes specific initiatives to support their digital evolution:
- DBS will collaborate with Antom, Ant International’s unified merchant payment and digitization services provider, to explore innovative solutions including the Model Context Protocol (MCP)-based Antom Agentic Payment solution. This technology integrates alternative payment methods, a payment mandate model, and trusted AI technologies to help SMEs streamline operations and enhance customer engagement.
- Partnership with WorldFirst will focus on scaling same-day and near-instant cross-border payment solutions specifically tailored for SME clients, addressing a critical pain point for small businesses engaged in international trade.
Pioneering Financial Technology Solutions
The expanded partnership also advances the institutions’ shared commitment to financial innovation, particularly in the realm of blockchain technology and tokenized deposits. This builds upon their existing collaboration which includes a pilot application of DBS Treasury Tokens – a blockchain-based solution that enables Ant International to manage intragroup liquidity in real-time, 24/7 across multiple markets and currencies.
This blockchain-powered treasury management solution addresses significant challenges faced by large multinational corporations operating across multiple jurisdictions, including:
- Reducing costs and transaction risks for cross-border payments
- Optimizing intragroup liquidity and working capital through near-instant settlement of transactions
- Providing corporate treasurers with greater visibility, predictability and control over organizational cash positions
Strategic Context and Leadership Vision
Building on a Foundation of Excellence
The partnership expansion comes at a time of significant recognition for DBS, which was recently named the “World’s Best Bank” by Euromoney for 2025 – the third time it has received this prestigious accolade since 2019. The bank was also recognized as the inaugural winner in the “World’s Best Bank for Customer Experience” category and “World’s Best Bank for Corporate Responsibility” for the second time.
DBS has demonstrated remarkable financial performance, with 2024 total income reaching SGD 22.3 billion and net profit of SGD 11.4 billion – both record highs. The bank’s return on equity of 18.0% ranks among the highest achieved by developed market banks, and it became the first Singapore-listed company to cross USD 100 billion in market capitalisation in 2024.
A Shared Commitment to Inclusive Growth
Leadership from both organizations emphasized the strategic importance and shared vision behind the expanded collaboration.
Peng Yang, CEO of Ant International, stated: “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, highlighted the alignment in purpose-driven innovation: “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.”
Setting a New Standard for Financial Collaboration
This enhanced partnership between DBS and Ant International represents more than a conventional business alliance—it signals the emergence of a new paradigm in financial services where traditional banking strength and digital-native technological capabilities converge to create transformative solutions.
By addressing multiple facets of the financial ecosystem simultaneously—from consumer payments to corporate treasury management—the collaboration is positioned to establish new benchmarks for efficiency, accessibility, and innovation in Asian financial services. The initiatives announced at the Singapore Fintech Festival 2025 demonstrate how strategic partnerships between established financial institutions and technology pioneers can accelerate the development of more inclusive, connected, and forward-looking financial ecosystems capable of serving diverse needs across the region.
As these solutions are implemented and scaled in the coming months, the financial industry will be watching closely to assess the real-world impact of this collaboration on the daily financial experiences of consumers and businesses throughout Asia and beyond.#
