ADI Foundation and DCM Corp have signed a technical partnership to help banks issue and manage tokenized deposits on ADI Chain. The companies are focusing on the Middle East, North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. Their September 8 announcement sets out a way to connect existing banking systems to blockchain-based settlement without requiring institutions to replace their core account software.

DCM will provide its Side-core integration platform, which is designed to sit alongside a bank's established infrastructure. It would allow the institution to retain customer accounts, approval processes, risk limits and compliance controls while adding digital deposit functions. ADI Foundation will provide the blockchain infrastructure and regional relationships. The agreement gives each firm an exclusive role for the specified solutions in the covered regions.

A tokenized deposit represents a bank deposit on a digital ledger. Under the proposed model, the underlying money remains within the bank's balance sheet and regulatory framework while the digital representation can support transfers or programmable payment instructions. DCM says its technology can work with existing banking standards, including ISO 20022, which financial institutions use to exchange structured payment information.

The companies describe a partnership and implementation model, not a list of banks already issuing such deposits through ADI Chain. A bank would still need to integrate its systems and operate the service under its own controls. The value of the arrangement lies in reducing the amount of core-system replacement required to try tokenized money. Its first institutional deployments will show how the proposed connection works in daily banking operations.