SCB, Citi Advance Real-Time Cross-Border Payments

The Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) and Citi announce SCB as the first financial institution client globally to go live with Citi’s newly integrated 24/7 USD Clearing and Citi Token Services solution. With this, Citi is enabling near real-time, round-the-clock, cross-border USD payments for its corporate and institutional clients.

This collaboration is a demonstration of both institutions’ commitment to digital innovation as a driver of commercial growth. For The Siam Commercial Bank, the adoption of 24/7 USD Clearing with Citi Token Services represents a strategic investment in next-generation payment infrastructure. For Citi, this is the next milestone in its industry leading 24/7 clearing solutions and digital assets strategy to meet clients’ evolving needs in an always-on world.

With Citi’s 24/7 USD Clearing solution, clients will be able to initiate and receive USD payments at any time – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year – with near-instant settlement, thereby eliminating the friction that has historically limited global payment operations. Citi Token Services leverages a private permissioned blockchain, operating entirely within the regulated banking system, to tokenize deposits held within Citi’s global network. When integrated with Citi’s 24/7 USD Clearing solution, which connects over 300 financial institutions across more than 50 markets, the result is a frictionless, always-on payment corridor that bridges Citi and non-Citi accounts globally.

The first transaction was completed by Phillip Securities Thailand, a subsidiary of PhillipCapital and a client of SCB. Leveraging Citi’s enhanced 24/7 USD Clearing capabilities and Citi Token Services, USD funds were transferred from a Citi London account maintained by Phillip Capital Inc, another PhillipCapital subsidiary, to the beneficiary account with SCB in Thailand over a US holiday weekend. This transaction demonstrated how corporates and financial institutions can leverage Citi’s integrated solution for cross-border, always-on payments across banks and jurisdictions.

Thanawatn Kittisuwan, Head of Transaction Banking, The Siam Commercial Bank, said: “At SCB, we continuously invest in innovative capabilities that help our corporate and institutional clients operate more efficiently in an increasingly global and connected business environment. Through our collaboration with Citi, we are the first bank in Thailand to leverage tokenization to enhance cross-border USD capabilities, helping our clients simplify operational constraints and conduct their international business activities with greater flexibility.”

Mridula Iyer, Asia South Head of Services at Citi said: “Our enhanced 24/7 USD Clearing solution integrated with Citi Token Services is an industry-first that bridges traditional and digital rails to expand our suite of always-on client solutions. It furthers our ‘network of networks’ approach as we build capabilities that are interoperable so that they are multi-bank, multi-market and multi-network. This gives our clients the optionality they need, now and for the future, as the global financial infrastructure continues to rapidly evolve.”

This milestone marks a significant step forward in Thailand’s digital financial infrastructure, bringing the power of blockchain-enabled, programmable payment capabilities to Thai businesses and financial institutions. It also furthers Thailand’s broader digital economy agenda, supporting the Bank of Thailand’s vision for a modernized, interoperable financial system that can compete on the global stage.