DBS, a Singaporean multinational banking and financial services corporation, and Ant International, a global fintech firm, agreed to expand their partnership to develop payment, digitization, and fintech solutions intended to support businesses of all sizes and individual consumers across the region.
DBS PayLah! will join the Alipay+ ecosystem, allowing more than three million DBS PayLah! users to make QR code payments to an estimated 150 million merchants in more than 100 markets.
“With a shared vision on enhancing inclusive growth for local and regional commerce, as well as nurturing local innovation and talent, we look forward to bringing our know-how in payments and digitalization together to create even stronger synergy to continuously boost the digital economy in this region,” said Peng Yang, CEO of Ant International.
The companies plan to combine DBS’ digital banking systems with the fintech firm’s technologies, including the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain tools. Both firms said these capabilities can help scale cross-border transactions, improve regional connectivity, and support the growth of financial products that can be used by more consumers and businesses.
DBS and Ant International have worked together since 2013 on several initiatives. These include SME payment services and, more recently, pilot work on tokenized deposits.
“By synergizing our strengths, we can unlock new avenues for growth, accelerate future-ready solutions like tokenized deposits and agentic payments, and reimagine the future of finance to drive greater impact for our clients and customers,” said Tan Su Shan, CEO of DBS.
The new Memorandum of Understanding was signed during the Singapore Fintech Festival 2025. It expands cooperation across several business units of the fintech company, including Alipay+, Antom, WorldFirst, and Bettr Platform Tech. The partnership outlines four main areas of collaboration.
DBS and Ant International are also looking at a bank-to-wallet service to enable near-instant remittances between DBS customers and more than 1.8 billion user accounts on Alipay+. The planned solution will use ISO 20022 messaging standards and the SWIFT network. Both companies are reviewing options to further simplify remittances between DBS customers and users within the Alipay+ network.
The partnership includes support for small and medium businesses through Antom, the fintech company’s merchant payment and digitization services unit. The companies will explore solutions such as the Model Context Protocol-based Antom Agentic Payment tool, as well as expanded same-day and near-instant cross-border payment support through WorldFirst.
DBS and Ant International also reaffirmed their cooperation on tokenized deposits and related digital finance initiatives.
