Maybank pilots near real-time MYR-SGD on-chain FX and cross-border payment

• Demonstrating how tokenised deposits could improve settlement speed and treasury efficiency
• Reflects ambition to build a regional transaction and payments platform across ASEAN

Maybank Bhd, one of the largest regional banks in Southeast Asia, has successfully completed the first transaction under its inaugural pilot project for tokenised deposits and cross-border payments with Yinson Holdings Bhd, the global energy infrastructure company, on 25 March. The bank hailed this as a significant milestone in its digital innovation journey, while advancing its mission of Humanising Financial Services which sits at the heart of its ROAR30 five-year strategy which was introduced in Jan 2025.

The project integrates tokenisation of bank deposits with an on-chain foreign exchange (FX) conversion of Malaysian Ringgit to Singapore Dollars, and a subsequent cross-border payment from Malaysia to Singapore, in near real-time, utilising Maybank’s permissioned blockchain.

The results build on the first Ringgit tokenised money pilot that Maybank announced in Feb under Bank Negara Malaysia’s Digital Asset Innovation Hub (DAIH). With Yinson as a participant, that pilot explored on-chain cross-border payments involving Ringgit and other ASEAN deposit tokens on Maybank’s permissioned blockchain.

The successful transaction demonstrates the technical feasibility of on-chain workflows and highlights its potential for incorporation into corporate treasury workflows to enhance operational efficiency and settlement speed.

Khairussaleh Ramli, President and Group CEO of Maybank said, “Our strategic focus on the MYR-SGD currency pair reflects the ambition to lead in facilitating seamless cross-border transactions, leveraging Maybank’s Malaysia-Singapore corridor advantage and position as an ASEAN gateway bank. We are pushing ahead in our ROAR30 strategy to build a regional transaction and payments platform across ASEAN that delivers integrated client experiences, frictionless money movement, and liquidity optimisation.”

Khairussaleh said that since Maybank announced its partnership with Yinson, it has received interest to collaborate on further pilots. “This is encouraging and with the next phase underway, we are exploring use cases with clients across multiple segments. This includes tokenised Islamic finance for businesses from large corporates to SMEs (small and medium enterprises), retail and wealth client solutions.”

Introduced in Jan 2025, Maybank’s ROAR30 has three key pillars:

Purpose of Humanising Financial Services by delivering values based solutions, impacting society positively, and powering the real economy

Business Growth: Targeting four key businesses: global Islamic finance, regional wealth management, regional transactions and payments, and regional corporate and investment banking.

Foundation Building: Enhancing workforce, culture, and technology to optimize productivity and capital allocation for sustainable growth.