A list of 17 banks is preparing to begin testing live transactions on Swift’s blockchain-based ledger, a move toward round-the-clock cross-border payments using tokenized deposits.
Swift said the ledger is ready for initial use by banks across six continents in an announcement Thursday. The purpose is to give banks the opportunity to move money to customers overnight and at the weekend, before the final settlement through existing payment systems.
Participating banks include UBS, BNP Paribas, BNY, Citi, HSBC and Wells Fargo.
Swift, the bank-owned messaging network used by more than 11,500 financial institutions, announced the development of this shared ledger platform in October. It then said it would allow banks to settle transactions involving stablecoins and tokenized assets across multiple blockchains, working alongside current payment rails, not replacing them.
Swift said the system provides banks with a shared layer for tokenized deposits issued on their own ledgers. Tokenized deposits are digital versions of commercial bank money.
“With our new finance function, we extend the trust and stability of established finance to the frontiers of digital money,” said Thierry Chilosi, Swift’s Chief Business Officer.
