The initiative marks one of Swift’s biggest moves into blockchain-enabled financial infrastructure and is aimed at supporting round-the-clock international payments while continuing to operate within the existing regulated banking system.
What has Swift announced?
Swift said its blockchain-based ledger is ready for a controlled live rollout, allowing participating banks to process cross-border payments using tokenised deposits. The system is designed to enable customers to move funds at any time of the day, including overnight and on weekends, before completing final settlement through existing payment infrastructure.
The pilot will involve 17 banks, including HSBC, Citi, BNP Paribas, DBS, Standard Chartered, UBS, Wells Fargo, ANZ, MUFG Bank and Lloyds Bank. According to Swift, the ledger was designed and built within nine months after the project was announced last year.
What are tokenised deposits?
Tokenised deposits are digital representations of conventional bank deposits created using blockchain or distributed ledger technology. Unlike cryptocurrencies or stablecoins, they remain liabilities of regulated banks and represent money held in customers’ bank accounts.
In simple terms, the deposit itself does not change. What changes is the technology used to record and transfer ownership, allowing transactions to move more efficiently while remaining within the regulated banking system.
How does the blockchain ledger work?
Swift’s blockchain ledger is not intended to replace existing payment systems. Instead, it acts as a coordination layer connecting participating banks that issue tokenised deposits on their own ledgers.
Banks can transfer tokenised deposits between each other in real time using the shared ledger, while the final settlement continues to take place through existing payment systems. This approach allows banks to test blockchain-enabled payments without changing the compliance, risk management and regulatory controls that already govern international transactions.
Why is Swift introducing this system?
Cross-border payments today often depend on banking hours, settlement windows and differences in time zones. As a result, transactions initiated outside business hours or over weekends may not be processed immediately.
Swift says its blockchain ledger is designed to address these limitations by supporting 24/7 payment availability and improving liquidity management. The company also believes the platform could serve as a foundation for future innovations involving regulated digital assets, including programmable payments and other digital financial applications.
Will existing payment systems continue?
Yes. Swift has positioned the blockchain ledger as an addition to its existing global infrastructure rather than a replacement.
The company noted that around 75% of payments on its network already reach beneficiary banks within 10 minutes, and often within seconds. The new ledger is intended to complement these improvements by enabling regulated digital forms of money to move across borders more efficiently while relying on the same trusted payment ecosystem for final settlement.
What happens next?
The ledger will initially be introduced through a controlled live pilot involving the participating banks. Swift said it plans to expand the platform’s functionality and availability after the first phase.
The pilot will test whether blockchain-based tokenised deposits can improve the speed and flexibility of international payments while maintaining the regulatory safeguards and operational resilience of the existing global banking system.
