The world's largest financial messaging network, Swift, has announced the launch of its new blockchain-based ledger, ready for initial use after nine months of development. Seventeen major banks, including HSBC, Citi, BNP Paribas, UBS, ANZ, DBS, and Standard Chartered, are preparing to pilot cross-border payments using tokenized bank deposits on the new ledger, Swift announced on Thursday.
The ledger will enable participating banks to support 24/7 cross-border payments, including overnight and weekend transactions, while maintaining existing compliance, credit, risk, and control standards embedded in current payment processing. This innovation addresses one of the longstanding limitations of traditional banking systems: the inability to settle payments outside business hours, which can cause delays of up to several days for international transfers.
Swift's interbank messaging network already connects over 11,500 banks and financial institutions across more than 200 countries and territories. The company reports that 75% of payments on its existing network reach beneficiary banks within 10 minutes, often in seconds. However, the remaining 25% can take longer, particularly when they involve currency conversions, complex compliance checks, or weekend processing. The new blockchain ledger aims to close that gap by enabling instant settlement at any time, using tokenized deposits that represent claims on commercial bank money.
Tokenized deposits: a bridge between traditional and digital finance
Tokenized deposits are digital representations of traditional bank deposits that run on a blockchain or distributed ledger. Unlike cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ether, tokenized deposits are fully backed by fiat currency held at the issuing bank and are subject to regulatory oversight. They offer the programmability and 24/7 availability of digital assets while preserving the stability and trust associated with traditional banking.
Swift's pilot involves 17 of the world's largest banks, each of which will issue tokenized deposits on the new ledger. These tokenized deposits will be used to settle cross-border payments between the participating banks in real time, bypassing the need for correspondent banking intermediaries that often slow down transactions. The ledger is designed to be interoperable with existing payment systems, allowing banks to connect their legacy infrastructure to the blockchain without major overhauls.
Thierry Chilosi, chief business officer at Swift, described the addition to Swift's resilient global platform as a key milestone for regulated digital assets that could lay the foundation for future innovation in areas including programmable money and agentic commerce. Programmable money refers to digital assets that can be programmed to execute transactions automatically when certain conditions are met, while agentic commerce involves autonomous software agents that conduct transactions on behalf of users. Both concepts rely on the ability to move value instantly and securely across borders.
Chilosi added that the ledger 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. This addresses a major concern among regulators and financial institutions: that digital assets must operate within the same legal and risk frameworks as traditional finance to prevent money laundering, fraud, and systemic risk.
The broader push toward tokenized banking
The Swift pilot is part of a larger trend in the banking industry toward tokenizing assets and payments. A month before Swift's announcement, a consortium of major banks including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citibank, Barclays, BNY, and Wells Fargo revealed plans to launch their own tokenized deposit network in the first half of 2027. That network will be operated by The Clearing House, the leading private-sector payments clearing house in the United States, and will connect traditional payment rails with digital asset infrastructure for 24/7 settlement.
Tokenization is also expanding into securities markets. In March 2025, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) partnered with tokenization platform Securitize to build blockchain-based infrastructure for tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds. Earlier, in January 2025, the NYSE's parent company, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), shared plans for a tokenized securities venue designed for 24/7 trading, instant settlement, stablecoin-based funding, and onchain settlement. These initiatives signal that financial institutions are moving beyond experimentation into practical deployment of blockchain technology for core operations.
The interest in tokenized deposits is driven partially by the success of stablecoins, digital tokens pegged to fiat currencies that have gained traction for cross-border payments, particularly in emerging markets. Stablecoins offer speed and low cost but operate outside the traditional banking system, raising concerns among regulators about consumer protection and financial stability. Tokenized deposits aim to deliver similar benefits while keeping transactions within the regulated banking ecosystem, thus offering the best of both worlds.
According to a research report by Goldman Sachs published earlier this year, tokenized deposits could reduce cross-border payment costs by up to 40% and cut settlement times from days to seconds. The report also highlighted that tokenization could unlock new revenue streams for banks through programmable payments, automated compliance, and the ability to offer new financial products such as instant loans secured by tokenized deposits.
Technical architecture and compliance considerations
Swift's new ledger is built on a permissioned blockchain, meaning that only authorized institutions can participate and view transactions. This ensures privacy and complies with banking secrecy laws while still benefiting from the transparency and immutability of a distributed ledger. The ledger supports smart contracts that can automate compliance checks such as sanctions screening, anti-money laundering (AML) checks, and know-your-customer (KYC) verification in real time.
Compliance was a key design consideration, as banks must adhere to a complex web of regulations across jurisdictions. Swift's ledger embeds these rules into the transaction flow, so that every payment is automatically screened before it is finalized. This reduces the need for manual intervention and lowers the risk of errors or delays. Banks participating in the pilot will also maintain their own separate ledgers for customer accounts, with the Swift ledger serving as a settlement layer for interbank transfers.
The initiative has been closely watched by central banks and regulators. The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has been advocating for a unified ledger that can bring together commercial bank money, central bank money, and tokenized assets into a single platform. Swift's ledger could be seen as a step toward that vision, albeit one led by the private sector. The BIS Innovation Hub has also launched several projects exploring tokenized cross-border payments, such as Project mBridge and Project Agorá, which involve multiple central banks and commercial banks.
Market reactions and future implications
News of Swift's blockchain ledger has generated positive reactions from the crypto and fintech communities. Industry observers note that Swift's vast network effect—connecting thousands of financial institutions—gives it a unique advantage in driving adoption of tokenized payments. Unlike other blockchain projects that require banks to build completely new infrastructure, Swift's ledger integrates with existing messaging and payment systems, reducing the barrier to entry.
Some analysts caution that the pilot is still in early stages and that full-scale deployment may take years. Challenges include achieving interoperability with different national payment systems, handling multiple currencies, and ensuring that the ledger can scale to handle the millions of transactions that Swift processes daily. Swift processes approximately 42 million messages per day, and the new ledger would need to match that capacity before it can replace existing systems.
Nevertheless, the involvement of 17 major global banks gives the project significant credibility. If the pilot succeeds, it could accelerate the adoption of tokenized deposits across the financial industry, leading to faster, cheaper, and more accessible cross-border payments. This would benefit not only large corporations but also small businesses and individuals who send money abroad, often paying high fees and waiting days for transfers to complete.
In the longer term, tokenized deposits could enable new forms of financial interaction, such as machine-to-machine payments (e.g., electric vehicles paying charging stations automatically), conditional payments based on external data feeds (e.g., insurance payouts triggered by weather events), and seamless integration with decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols—all while remaining within the regulated banking system. Swift's announcement represents a concrete step toward this vision, providing the infrastructure for banks to experiment with these use cases in a controlled environment.
The development also comes at a time when regulatory clarity around digital assets is improving in many jurisdictions. The European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation provides a comprehensive framework for stablecoins and tokenized assets, while the United States is still developing its approach. The United Kingdom and Singapore have also introduced sandboxes for tokenized securities and deposits. Swift's global reach means that its ledger could become a de facto standard for tokenized cross-border payments, potentially influencing regulatory discussions worldwide.
Source:Cointelegraph News