On 28 September 2026 Citigroup extended Citi Token Services to the UAE and Japan: Citi clients in the Emirates can now move US dollars and euros across borders 24/7 via tokenised deposits on a private permissioned blockchain. With this step CTS operates in seven jurisdictions — the US, Ireland, Hong Kong, Singapore, the UK, Japan and the UAE.
What launched
Citi Token Services (CTS) is Citi’s platform for near-instant liquidity movement inside the group and on behalf of corporate clients on a private permissioned blockchain. In effect, bank deposits are “tokenised”, and funds move between jurisdictions and currencies on top of the standard banking day — without cut-off times and without waiting for correspondent chains.
On 28 September 2026 Citi added two new markets to CTS: Japan and the UAE. There is a currency asymmetry: in Japan the platform starts with USD only, while in the UAE it goes live with USD and EUR at the same time. After the expansion CTS operates in seven countries: the US, Ireland, Hong Kong, Singapore, the UK, Japan and the UAE.
Who it is for
The stated audience is Citi’s corporate and institutional clients: multinationals, financial institutions, larger domestic corporates. Practical use cases are liquidity management (moving cash between subsidiaries across time zones), collateral management, cross-border payments and treasury operations.
For a UAE-registered company, the value is twofold. First, a 24/7 channel to move USD and EUR between its own accounts in different countries removes part of the pain of settling across time zones. Second, liquidity movements are no longer tied to the banking calendar of Asia or Europe: a Friday-evening GST transfer can reach London or Hong Kong without waiting for Monday.
How the technology works
Per Citi, CTS is built on “tokenised deposits” — a digital representation of the bank’s real deposit liabilities inside a private permissioned blockchain. The key difference from public crypto networks: network access is restricted, participants are known, and the underlying asset is a regulated bank’s obligation (Citi’s), not a standalone crypto token. Citi says the platform has already processed “billions of dollars” in transactions since going live in earlier markets.
For a corporate treasurer this feels closer to plugging in a banking product than to handling crypto: the settlement layer remains a Citi deposit, but movement runs on infrastructure that operates 24/7 and can be programmed (for example, via smart-contract rules).
UAE regulatory context
The press release does not name a specific UAE regulator for the launch and does not clarify whether CTS is delivered through onshore Citi UAE (licensed by the Central Bank of the UAE) or through a financial centre (DIFC / ADGM). Only the launch itself, the currencies and the target client base are publicly disclosed.
The broader direction of UAE regulators towards digital payments and tokenisation is visible independently: DIFC and ADGM are building regimes for digital assets and tokenised securities, while the Central Bank of the UAE is running the national payment infrastructure programme. One of its building blocks — the Jaywan national payment card — provides the sovereign “floor” of the UAE card rails, while CTS sits at the upper, institutional layer of cross-border corporate settlement.
What changes for a UAE company in practice
Direct access to CTS is limited to Citi clients — companies and financial institutions that already hold a corporate account with Citi UAE or bank with another Citi branch. For most UAE-registered businesses, banking runs through local and regional banks rather than global names like Citi — with their own onboarding timelines, KYC requirements and limits. We covered this in a separate piece on how to open a UAE corporate bank account.
For groups running multinational operations — say, a UAE parent with subsidiaries in Singapore, Hong Kong, London or Ireland — CTS offers a clear win: your own USD and EUR liquidity can be moved between those jurisdictions on top of banking hours. For a local SME without a cross-border footprint, this is mostly a trend signal rather than an immediately actionable tool.
On the record
From Citi, the on-record comments came from Kanika Thakur, Head of Services for Japan, Asia North and Australia (on the Japan leg), and Rizwan Shaikh, Head Services for Middle East & Africa (on the UAE expansion). The publicly disclosed details are the market set, currencies and the target client base; specific CTS volumes for the UAE, pricing and SLAs are not disclosed.
Sources
The primary source is the Citigroup press release “Citi Token Services Expands Global Footprint to Japan and the United Arab Emirates” on Citigroup Global Newsroom, dated 28 September 2026. Additional coverage: Fintech News UAE (29 September 2026).
