The news
Citi Token Services, Citigroup's (C) round-the-clock system for moving client money, now operates in Japan and the United Arab Emirates, the bank said on September 28, 2026. The move takes the always-on service to seven markets and into two major trade and treasury hubs.
The service uses tokenized deposits, meaning ordinary bank deposits represented as digital tokens, on a private-permissioned blockchain that only approved participants can use. According to Citi, clients with accounts in Japan and the UAE can now send funds to and from their own accounts, or to other Citi clients in earlier markets, without being held up by banking cut-off times or holiday calendars.
In Japan the service supports U.S. dollar transactions. In the UAE it supports both dollars and euros. The other live markets are the United States, Ireland, Hong Kong, Singapore and the United Kingdom, Citi said. The bank says the platform processes billions of dollars in transactions and supports liquidity, collateral and cross-border payment needs, though it did not give a precise volume or client count.
Stephen Randall, Citi's global head of liquidity management services, called the expansion a milestone in scaling the network, according to the release. Kanika Thakur, head of services for Japan, Asia North and Australia, said it would let dollar transactions move in and out of Japan in real time. Rizwan Shaikh, head of services for the Middle East and Africa, said it would help the bank deepen relationships and optimize liquidity in the region.
The next day, on September 29, Broadridge Financial Solutions (BR) named Theo Golden to a newly created role as head of tokenized product, international, based in London, according to Financial IT. Golden joins from Baillie Gifford, where the outlet reports he launched a tokenized fund, and he reports to Mark Nichols, Broadridge's co-president for digital assets. Nichols said tokenization is moving mainstream.
The numbers
- Markets where Citi Token Services is live
- 7
- Currencies supported in the UAE
- USD and EUR
- Currency supported in Japan
- USD
- Firms that see tokenization as strategically important (Broadridge survey, July 2026)
- 84%
- U.S. adults who own stablecoins (Flagship Advisory Partners, via SiliconANGLE)
- 5%
Why CEOs should care
For treasurers and CFOs, the practical gain is time. A company with operations in Dubai, Tokyo and New York can end up waiting for the slowest banking day on the chain before cash lands where it is needed. If Citi moves dollars between its own clients' accounts at any hour, trapped weekend and holiday balances can be put to work sooner. Ask your relationship bank three things: which of your entities and currencies are eligible, whether receipts count as final settlement for your accounting, and what happens when the counterparty banks elsewhere.
That last point is the catch. Citi describes transfers between accounts of its own clients; payments to suppliers or subsidiaries at other banks are not part of what it announced. Treasurers should map how much of their intercompany and supplier flow already sits inside one bank before assuming a big benefit, and weigh that against the concentration risk of routing more money through a single provider.
For boards of banks and payment firms, the direction is clear. Large firms such as Citi and Broadridge are staffing and building for tokenized money, and a Broadridge survey of 200 senior North American decision-makers, released July 16, found 84% view tokenization as strategically important. Institutions without a plan for always-on corporate liquidity risk losing high-value treasury clients to banks that offer it.
The bigger picture
The expansion lands in a live argument over what form digital money should take. SiliconANGLE reported on September 28 that the Clarity for Payment Stablecoins Act failed in the U.S. Senate in September, and that only 5% of U.S. adults own stablecoins, citing Flagship Advisory Partners. Bank advocates quoted in the piece, including Bank Policy Institute chief Greg Baer, pointed to tokenized deposits as the alternative. Custodia Bank founder Caitlin Long put it bluntly: "Tokenized deposits are going to eat stablecoins' lunch."
Tokenized deposits stay on a regulated bank's balance sheet, which is part of their appeal to corporate treasurers wary of holding crypto-linked assets. Stablecoins, by contrast, are typically issued by non-bank firms and can circulate across public blockchains. Which model wins corporate flows will shape how banks earn fees on cross-border payments.
What’s next
Watch whether Citi adds more currencies, such as yen or dirhams, to its Japan and UAE offerings, whether rivals announce matching 24/7 services in Gulf and Asian hubs, and which products Broadridge's new international team brings to market.
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