Nearly 90% of businesses are turning to tokenised money, DBS survey shows

DBS Survey: 88% of Global Businesses Now Using Tokenised Money Solutions

Global Adoption and Impact of Tokenised Money in Business

Rapid Uptake Among Global Businesses

SINGAPORE, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Global adoption of tokenised money is moving faster than expected among businesses looking to improve liquidity management and access new markets, a top executive from Singapore bank DBS said.

The remarks by Lim Soon Chong, the group head of global transaction services, follow a survey by the lender that showed that 88% of businesses have deployed or are piloting tokenised money use cases.

Survey Methodology and Respondent Profile

• Conducted between June and July, the survey polled 422 global business and finance leaders from organisations with annual revenue exceeding $500 million across 11 markets including the US, UK, Australia, China and Germany

Deployment and Use Cases

• Roughly two-thirds of respondents said their businesses had either fully deployed tokenised money at scale or begun using it in selected locations

Types of Tokenised Money Instruments

Stablecoins Lead the Way

• Stablecoins were the most widely adopted tokenised instrument at 63%, followed by tokenised deposits at 53% and tokenised money market funds at 52%

Benefits of Stablecoins

• "Our interpretation is that there are significant benefits that stablecoins offer," said Lim

• "Stablecoins, as you know, offer better fungibility across payment intermediaries, not just across banks. They are less cumbersome from a permissioning standpoint," he said

Geographical Trends and Currency Preferences

Expansion into New Markets

• The survey found Southeast Asia was the top destination for businesses looking to expand into new markets, followed by Australia and New Zealand, with India ranking third

Growing Interest in Renminbi Settlement

• More than half of respondents in both Australia and the UK said they were considering using the Chinese renminbi for trade settlement over the next one to two years

• The renminbi's recent appreciation is making renminbi settlement more attractive to Chinese exporters, who are increasingly offering better commercial terms for transactions denominated in the currency, DBS said

• "The Chinese authorities are clearly pushing the internationalisation of the renminbi, so we expect this to go up," Lim said

(Reporting by Rae Wee; Editing by Sonali Paul)