The bank worked with Enterprise Singapore and the country’s fintech association on the pilot, which saw programmable disbursements made to 27 local fintechs.Using DBS’ permissioned blockchain, government agencies were able to determine and programme conditions, governing grant disbursements. Conditions included disbursements to approved recipients only, and upon the fulfilment of certain business conditions. Once smart contracts verified conditions were met, the grants were automatically disbursed as cash.This enhanced governance control while reducing the need for manual processing of cash handling by intermediaries, enabling businesses to receive government cash payouts faster, says DBS. In addition, the bank’s permissioned blockchain enables full visibility of the entire process.Han Kwee Juan, country head, DBS Singapore, says: “This programmable grant disbursements pilot innovates a new payment instrument that leverages the learnings from our Purpose Bound Money pilots, and marks a key milestone in the industrialisation of blockchain technology. Smart contract technology automates and streamlines grant disbursements for government agencies to enable faster, more secure disbursements and payments. "We envision this payment innovation being extended to more use cases including milestone-based project payments, consumer rewards and more."