Swift blockchain
Swift is a network for financial messages between banks and is developing a blockchain-based shared ledger. This planned addition records and validates payment commitments so that participating banks can coordinate transactions using a shared record. The project connects existing bank payment processes with digital records intended to support transfers around the clock.
The initial project concerns cross-border payments between banks using tokenized deposits, which are digital representations of commercial bank money. The ledger coordinates commitments while banks retain responsibility for funding and settlement. A shared transaction record helps participants follow the same payment as it moves between institutions.
Swift's shared ledger project
At Sibos 2025 in Frankfurt, Swift announced the ledger together with more than 30 financial institutions. Swift built the conceptual prototype with Consensys. According to Swift, the ledger records and validates transactions between banks and enforces the rules for them through smart contracts. The ledger runs next to the payment systems Swift already operates.
Swift's existing services carry payment messages, while the money moves through correspondent accounts between banks. SWIFT gpi tracks such a payment along that chain.
From prototype to MVP with tokenized deposits
In the MVP phase, Swift describes the ledger as a shared digital orchestration layer that records and validates interbank payment commitments. Seventeen early adopter banks plan live transactions with tokenized deposits. Commercial banks and central banks decide which types of token the ledger carries.
Swift and other blockchains
Swift has also run experiments with Chainlink and banks such as Citi and BNY Mellon. They tested whether a bank can move a tokenized asset across several public and private blockchains through its existing Swift connection. Chainlink was the connection point between the Swift network and the blockchains; the Chainlink page has the details.
Upcoming payments and digital money events
Payments & Digital Money
Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty
Is Swift using blockchain?
Yes. Swift is adding a blockchain-based shared ledger to its infrastructure, first for real-time cross-border payments between banks. The ledger runs next to the existing Swift messaging services.
Does the Swift blockchain have a coin?
In the MVP the banks plan to pay with tokenized deposits. Commercial banks and central banks decide which types of token the ledger carries.
Cross-border payments
Ledger technology
Swift and Finance Loop
Finance Loop covers cross-border payments and bank money on blockchains in the Payments & Digital Money track.
Finance Loop held its Sibos 2025 side event at TechQuartier, across from Messe Frankfurt, during the conference at which Swift announced its ledger.
Finance Loop is a professional network supporting the institutional use of emerging technologies in finance, such as AI, digital payments, cloud and blockchain solutions. Finance Loop helps its members build skills and personal networks in these fields: Investment & Digital Assets, Payments & Digital Money, Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty, and Risk & Compliance.