- Swift launched a blockchain-based ledger that lets banks move tokenized deposits across borders 24/7 before completing final settlement through existing banking systems.
- The ledger is designed to make blockchain interoperable with bank infrastructure, giving financial institutions a shared layer for digital money without requiring them to abandon current rails or compliance processes.
- Seventeen global banks will participate in the initial pilot, moving Swift’s blockchain work from prototype to live testing with major transaction banks across six continents.
Swift has officially launched its new blockchain-based ledger that will support 24/7 cross-border payments with tokenized deposits, enabling funds to move in any regulated form, anywhere, with a high level of security.
The shared, blockchain-based ledger offers banks an orchestration layer for bank-issued tokenized deposits on their own ledgers. The blockchain ledger enables banks to move funds for customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week, before completing final settlement through the banks’ existing systems. In addition to always-on settlement, banks can offer clients global liquidity while maintaining compliance, credit, risk, and control standards.
“With our new ledger capability, we’re extending the trust and stability of established finance into the frontiers of digital money,” said Swift Chief Business Officer Thierry Chilosi. “It allows tokenized value to move across borders with the velocity and flexibility modern commerce expects, while maintaining the same high levels of resiliency, security, and compliance global finance requires. The strong support from banks shows the practical value of this approach—one that will help scale benefits globally while creating a foundation for future innovation in areas like programmable money and agentic commerce.”
Unlike other new payments technology, Swift’s ledger brings blockchain-based payments into the infrastructure banks already use. While previous digital money efforts were fragmented across pilots, private networks, and bank-specific systems, Swift’s approach gives banks a shared layer for moving tokenized value across borders while preserving the compliance, resiliency, and settlement processes that each region requires. Rather than asking banks to abandon existing rails, Swift is positioning the blockchain as an interoperable layer that can work alongside them.
Today’s announcement comes ten months after Swift teased the launch of its ledger, testing a prototype blockchain with more than 30 financial institutions across the globe. This is the first use case for Swift’s ledger, which the cooperative anticipates will set a new precedent for interoperability on payments infrastructure. Swift has made it clear that it will offer fee transparency and a faster, more consistent customer experience. Today’s upgrades to the ledger move Swift’s blockchain ambitions out of the experimentation phase and into a live pilot with some of the world’s largest transaction banks.
Swift reports that the speed of payments on the new blockchain-based network exceeds current standards. “A full 75 percent of payments on the network reach beneficiary banks within 10 minutes, and often in seconds, and the cooperative is going even further to advance the industry to meet the G20 targets for international transactions,” the company states. The member-owned cooperative plans to expand the network functionality and availability after an initial pilot phase that will include 17 banks from six continents. Among the pilot banks are ANZ, BNP Paribas, BNY, Citi, DBS, First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), FirstRand Bank Limited, HSBC, Itaú Unibanco, Lloyds Bank, Mashreq, MUFG Bank, OCBC, Standard Chartered, UBS, UOB, and Wells Fargo.
“We see interoperability as the key enabler for scaling tokenized deposits beyond individual institutions,” said UBS Managing Director, Group Head of Digital Assets Mr. Andreas Kubli. “Swift’s ledger is an important industry initiative that can help connect digital money networks, supporting real-time settlement, greater liquidity mobility and the broader adoption of tokenized payments and digital assets across the global financial ecosystem.”
Photo by Sonny Sixteen
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