Fintech Powerhouse: Ant International & HSBC Bring Tokenized Deposits to Middle East!

Ant International has expanded its real-time treasury management operations into the Middle East through an enlarged collaboration with HSBC, completing pilot transactions across two UAE-anchored payment corridors. This milestone positions Ant International as the first client in the region to utilize HSBC’s Tokenised Deposit Service (TDS).

The two corridors successfully tested included intra-UAE dirham transfers, executed in real time within the UAE, and cross-border US dollar payments initiated from the UAE and settled with counterparties in Hong Kong and Singapore. Both sets of transactions were initiated through WhaleRTP, Ant International’s proprietary blockchain-based treasury platform, and executed via HSBC’s TDS. This workflow was jointly designed by both institutions.

WhaleRTP, Ant International's blockchain-based treasury infrastructure, has been operational since 2019. It has been deployed across major financial centers globally, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Europe, and the United States. The platform currently connects to more than 20 global banking partners and facilitates real-time transfers in over 17 currencies, including the US dollar, Hong Kong dollar, and UAE dirham. This Middle East expansion, therefore, represents a geographic extension of an established operational layer rather than a greenfield technology deployment.

HSBC’s TDS is now live in six markets: Hong Kong, Singapore, Luxembourg, the UK, the United States, and the UAE. It supports seven currencies, including the Chinese offshore renminbi, euro, pound sterling, and dirham. Kyle Boag, HSBC’s regional head of global payments solutions for the MENAT region, noted that the service demonstrates “interoperability between tokenised deposit networks,” offering corporate clients the practical benefit of moving liquidity across markets and financial institutions with improved cash visibility.

Kelvin Li, general manager of platform tech and senior vice president at Ant International, framed this move as a step toward establishing “a global treasury hub in the Middle East.” This is a commercially significant ambition given the region’s growing role in cross-border trade and digital finance investment. Ant International’s existing operational footprint in the Gulf includes Alipay+, its merchant payments network; Antom, its payment gateway business; and WorldFirst, its cross-border payments platform for small and medium enterprises.

This expansion aligns with an intersection that regulators in the Gulf are actively developing. The UAE’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARDA) and the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) have both issued frameworks covering digital asset activity, and the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) has been working to attract institutional blockchain infrastructure. Tokenised deposits, which represent commercial bank money on a distributed ledger rather than a new currency or a stablecoin, fit into a cleaner regulatory category and do not require the same licensing as a digital asset exchange or a virtual asset service provider. This distinction is meaningful for corporates with conservative treasury mandates.

More broadly, institutional tokenised deposit infrastructure is gaining traction as a mechanism for solving practical cash-management problems, particularly 24/7 liquidity access and the ability to settle across time zones without the credit and settlement risk associated with correspondent banking chains. HSBC now joins JPMorgan, Citi, and Standard Chartered in operating live tokenised deposit or intraday liquidity networks, though the specific currency and geography coverage differs across each platform.

A key competitive question for the HSBC and Ant International partnership is whether the joint workflow can attract third-party corporate clients beyond Ant International’s own affiliates, and whether the dirham corridor becomes a template for further Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) currencies.