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Swift is integrating a blockchain-based shared ledger to enable real-time, 24/7 cross-border payments.
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The system, developed with Consensys and over 30 global banks, will support tokenised asset transfers and smart contract validation.
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Swift aims to remain a neutral infrastructure provider, ensuring interoperability with existing and emerging digital financial systems.
Swift, the global financial messaging service, announced plans to integrate a blockchain-based shared ledger into its infrastructure.
The messaging network, which processes cross-border payment instructions for more than 11,000 financial institutions, said the new ledger would enable real-time, round-the-clock international transactions at scale. Swift has begun collaborating with over 30 global banks to design the system, using a prototype developed by blockchain technology company Consensys.
This move into distributed ledger technology is ambitious and timely, as traditional payment rails face increasing pressure from digital alternatives and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
With this in mind, the proposed ledger will complement Swift’s existing messaging infrastructure by facilitating the movement of tokenised assets across digital networks. It would also function as a secure, real-time transaction log between financial institutions, recording and validating transfers through smart contracts. Swift emphasised that the system is designed for interoperability with both existing payment networks and emerging digital platforms.
“We provide powerful and effective rails today and are moving at a rapid pace with our community to create the infrastructure stack of the future,” said Swift chief executive Javier Pérez-Tasso, speaking at the organisation’s annual Sibos conference in Frankfurt.
“Through this initial ledger concept, we are paving the way for financial institutions to take the payments experience to the next level.”
Financial institutions from 16 countries are providing input on the ledger’s design, including major banks such as JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, HSBC, Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas. The full list encompasses 34 institutions spanning developed and emerging markets.
Swift has positioned itself as an infrastructure provider rather than a token issuer, leaving decisions about which digital assets to support to commercial and central banks.
Swift has been trialling digital assets over the last two years, and comes as the payments industry grapples with the rise of stablecoins, central bank digital currencies and other blockchain-based alternatives to traditional cross-border transfers, which can take days to settle and involve multiple intermediaries.
