• Over three in four businesses rewiring treasury and finance playbooks to strengthen resilience
• Another three in four businesses expect AI to improve their treasury management, payments and collections within the next two years

Singapore, 28 Oct 2026 — Tokenised money is increasingly becoming a mainstream tool for large corporations to move value instantly round-the-clock, with greater control across a wider network of markets. According to a survey by DBS, 88% of businesses were already deploying or piloting tokenised money use cases, reflecting its potential to help institutions optimise liquidity and scale confidently across new trade corridors, markets and currencies.

This comes as businesses rewire business operations, treasury operations and financial management toolkits amid volatility and trade fragmentation. In response to supply chain reconfigurations, over three in four respondents had to adapt their operations and expand into new markets, with Southeast Asia emerging as the top destination. Around the same proportion said they experienced higher foreign exchange and energy price volatility, as well as less predictable transaction settlement outcomes, over the last 12 months.

Southeast Asia has emerged as the top destination for businesses seeking to expand into new markets

To better address these shifts, innovations like tokenised money and artificial intelligence tools emerged as key solutions to address growing complexity. In addition, respondents were increasingly building exposure to multiple settlement currencies to support operations across emerging trade corridors.

These were the key findings from a new DBS report, The Great Rewiring: Money in a new order, which surveyed 422 business leaders across 11 markets[1].

Han Kwee Juan, Group Head of Institutional Banking, DBS, said: “Organisations today are operating in a world shaped by shifting trade corridors, new architectures of money and the rapid advancement of AI. To respond to these complexities, business leaders need to rethink how they leverage new technologies such as AI and tokenised solutions, manage liquidity, currencies and cross border flows, and build operating models that can adapt quickly to better withstand shocks. The organisations that succeed will be those that can turn complexity into optionality, adapt with agility, and capture opportunities in a rapidly changing world.”

Tokenised money going mainstream sooner than expected

Most leaders expect to reap the benefits of tokenised money within the next two years, reflecting growing confidence in the underlying technology and industry standards that enable widespread adoption. 72% of companies expect improved auditability and traceability within their businesses. Other expected benefits include real-time cross-border payments (71%), stronger internal controls and governance (66%) and optimisation of treasury liquidity management (65%).

Stablecoins (63%) were the most widely adopted tokenised instruments, followed by tokenised deposits (53%) and tokenised money market funds (52%).

Artificial intelligence moving from experimentation to execution

The deployment of artificial intelligence in treasury functions also reaped benefits. Around three in four respondents said they experienced or expect improvements within the next two years across several areas – including cash and liquidity forecasting, payment investigations, post-settlement issue resolution, payments reconciliation and exception detection.

Exposure to multiple currencies on the rise

To provide their businesses with greater optionality, 78% of respondents had diversified their reliance on traditional settlement currencies by building exposure to multiple currencies that support more trading corridors. Just 2% were not considering any other currencies, underscoring a broader shift towards a more diverse monetary system in the future.

Banks as trusted innovation partners for technology-led transformation

Finance leaders nevertheless faced barriers in integrating new solutions as part of treasury transformation. These included regulatory and compliance uncertainty, data security and operational risks, limited internal expertise and integration complexity.

In response, businesses increasingly viewed banks as trusted innovation partners that can help provide access, implementation support and the infrastructure required to scale these solutions. 64% of respondents wanted banks to serve as a single point of integration into the tokenised money ecosystem, while 63% sought support for pilots, proofs of concept and integration. In addition, 63% of businesses wanted access to bank-enabled technology and infrastructure platforms to help scale and adopt AI solutions. These findings point to a broader evolution in the role of banks from financiers and transaction facilitators to strategic enablers of technology-led transformation.

Lim Soon Chong, Group Head of Global Transaction Services, DBS, said: “The next chapter of cross-border finance will go beyond improving speed and cost, to moving value intelligently and securely. AI adoption, digital assets, tokenised money and new settlement mechanisms offer opportunities for companies to optimise liquidity and to scale effectively. However, many emerging settlement networks are developing in parallel. For companies, fragmentation may add complexities and compliance obligations. The future will be defined by new forms of money and technology, and also shaped by trusted anchors who can orchestrate value movement across multiple networks.”

The Great Rewiring: Money in a new order is the fourth iteration of DBS’ ongoing thought leadership series tailored for treasury and finance professionals. Read the full report here.

This year’s report is based on a survey of 422 global business and finance leaders, Chief Financial Officers, finance heads and senior treasury executives from organisations with annual revenue exceeding $500 million across 11 markets (Australia, China, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States)

Re-disseminated by The Asian Banker