Introduction
Global commerce is growing faster than the infrastructure that moves money around. Cross-border payment flows are expected to reach US$290 trillion by 2030, growing at around 9% (CAGR) annually as more shoppers and businesses transact across borders without thinking twice about international boundaries.
Yet payment rails haven’t kept pace with this real-time world. One-third of retail cross-border payments took more than one business day to be settled in 2024 – with many taking as much as five days, relying on a chain of intermediaries that create friction and drain working capital.
Other constraints on global money movement – limited operating hours, cut-off times and fragmented processes, among others – get in the way of efficiently tracking funds. Manual reconciliation and compliance overheads add even more cost and delay.
The race is on to eliminate these inefficiencies.
Real-time payments networks are now live or being planned in over 80 countries, processing 114 million transactions annually and enabling funds to move faster between markets. ISO 20022-based blockchain pilots are also accelerating interoperability between banks and fintech providers, enabling richer data exchange and better transparency across jurisdictions.
Then there’s tokenisation: the creation of a digital representation of money, issued by a regulated bank and recorded on blockchain or other distributed ledger technology.
Tokenisation combines the trust and stability of the traditional banking system with the programmability, speed, and transparency of digital networks – a new twist in financial architecture that helps payments move as efficiently as digital commerce demands.
Tokenisation’s Core Capabilities and Benefits
Enhanced efficiency and speed
Tokenisation unlocks instant, round-the-clock settlement, whether payments are flowing across town or between global markets. No intermediaries are needed, as banks can now exchange value on a shared ledger with immediate finality.
Real-time cross-border payments cut down clearance times from days to seconds – with transactions settling continuously across time zones and without the complexity of correspondent banking chains.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA)’s Project Ensemble is the latest test case for this. Project Ensemble uses wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC) for interbank settlement of tokenised deposits, which promises retail users better liquidity and less idle capital tied up during traditional clearing cycles.
Tokenisation also enables atomic settlement: all legs of a transaction complete simultaneously, or none do. This eliminates counterparty settlement risk, leading to more efficient capital deployment.
Programmability and automation
Tokenised deposits create money that can act on instructions the moment it moves. Checks and approvals can execute automatically through ledger-level controls or via smart contracts that enforce certain rules the moment value moves.
Because each transfer updates a shared ledger instantly, banks gain immediate visibility into balances and pending obligations. That real-time data allows internal systems to automate reporting and risk checks without manual reconciliation breaking the flow.
With intelligence sitting inside both the money and the infrastructure that moves it, payments can advance themselves through the workflow – no more manual intervention needed. With tokenisation, capital circulates faster even as institutions exert greater control over when, where, and how value is released.
Reduced costs and complexity
Trust, stability and regulatory clarity
Tokenised deposits are issued by regulated banks and remain fully backed by deposits on their balance sheets, preserving the safety and stability expected of commercial bank money. They integrate seamlessly with existing financial systems while extending access to blockchain-based innovation.
This gives institutions the confidence to scale faster settlement and automation without compromising on compliance or risk discipline.
Conclusion: The Future of Money Movement
By fusing regulated banking with programmable finance, tokenisation is changing the rules on how regulated money is issued, transferred and accounted for. Tokenised deposits powered by next-generation solutions like Bettr real-time treasury management, are raising the bar for speed, scalability and trust in global finance.
Now, as more value travels on tokenised rails, institutions must decide how they will work within this new architecture. Banks need models of interoperability that don’t recreate old barriers in a new format. Regulators must help mitigate risk while allowing programmable settlement rules that strengthen resilience rather than weaken it.
What emerges is a payment environment where friction is no longer tolerated simply because it is familiar. Value can move when it needs to, under conditions that are transparent to every participant. Tokenisation is decisively pushing that standard into the mainstream.
