At Swift, our mission has always been to continually innovate and elevate the cross-border payments experience. Today, we are taking a pivotal step forward: adding a blockchain-based shared ledger to our technology infrastructure.
This landmark initiative — announced at Sibos 2025 in Frankfurt — will extend Swift’s trusted platform into a digital environment, unlocking the potential for instant, always-on transactions at global scale and accelerating the industry’s transition to digital finance across more than 200 countries and territories.
“I’m very pleased to announce that we will add a blockchain-based ledger to our technology infrastructure to allow for trusted movement of tokenised value across the digital ecosystems.” Swift CEO Javier Perez-Tasso said, noting that the addition may be surprising to some. “You may think, ‘Wow, aren’t those opposites? Swift and blockchain. TradFi and DeFi. Can they really go together?’ In the regulated system of the future, we believe they can. Banks are ready for it. And they’re asking us to play a bigger role.”
Swift, together with a group of over 30 global financial institutions, has begun designing and developing a shared digital ledger, with the first use case focused on real-time, 24/7 cross-border payments.
The blockchain-based shared ledger – a secure, real-time log of transactions between financial institutions – will start with a conceptual prototype with Consensys. It will record, sequence and validate transactions and enforce rules through smart contracts. The ledger will be built for interoperability, both with existing and emerging networks, while maintaining the trust, resilience and compliance synonymous with Swift and critical to the secure functioning of global finance.
“Combining a shared ledger with Swift’s existing messaging, APIs and ISO 20022 creates an even more powerful construct – one that can embed risk, controls and compliance requirements from the outset into transaction flows while enabling real-time 24/7 interbank cross border payments with the same trust, security, resilience, scalability and operational excellence Swift is known for. All in line with the approach we’ve always taken of responsible innovation.”, said Pérez-Tasso.
The ledger will complement recent enhancements to existing rails and new interoperability solutions that help orchestrate transactions across both traditional and emerging systems. Together, these initiatives make payments faster, more predictable and globally scalable.
Speaking at Sibos, Javier Pérez-Tasso said: “Financial infrastructures need to keep relentless focus on the fundamentals of operational excellence, regulatory compliance and governance. And at the same time, they need to get ready for the future. And at Swift, our approach is to innovate across two parallel tracks.”
This dual approach will ensure that banks and their customers can benefit from best-in-class payments experiences, no matter how value moves.
He added: “In infrastructure strength comes through layered innovation. It’s not either or, it’s definitely both. And actually we’re convinced that the whole will be greater than the sum of its parts.”
Financial institutions from 16 countries are already shaping the design of the ledger. Over 30 leading banks – including are collaborating with Swift to define functionality, governance, and future phases of development.
The shared ledger is a natural extension of our live digital asset trials and ongoing innovation. Alongside it, we are also developing client solutions for interoperability across private and public networks, ensuring value can move seamlessly between different systems.
Together, these efforts underscore our commitment to powering the future of payments – faster, more reliable, and fully interoperable – at global scale.
“This is a powerful platform for the future. And it can be even more transformational in the future.” said Pérez-Tasso.
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