Swift launches ledger to pilot tokenized deposits with 17 banks

Swift has launched a blockchain-based shared ledger to pilot tokenized deposits with 17 banks across six continents. The project is the payment network’s first live use of the distributed ledger technology it unveiled last year. The cooperative wrote that the ledger was designed and built in nine months with input from participating banks.

The ledger acts as an orchestration layer for bank-issued tokenized deposits, letting participating institutions move funds for customers 24 hours a day, including overnight and on weekends. Final settlement of tokenized transfers remains on banks’ existing payment rails and messaging systems, preserving credit, compliance and operational controls.

Participants in the initial pilot include Citi, HSBC, UBS, BNP Paribas, Standard Chartered, Wells Fargo, BNY, DBS and MUFG Bank. The pilot is part of Swift’s wider work to test tokenized finance use cases with its network of more than 11,500 members in over 200 countries and territories.

According to Swift, “The approach preserves the compliance, credit, risk and control standards embedded in current payment processing while improving liquidity efficiency and client experience.” The cooperative described the ledger as enabling interoperability between tokenized deposits issued by different banks and added that the pilot lays groundwork for future applications such as programmable money and commerce-driven automated workflows.

The rollout builds on prior tests that combine ISO 20022 messaging with distributed ledger environments. Last year Swift expanded collaboration with Chainlink to test integration of its ISO 20022 infrastructure with the Chainlink Runtime Environment in a live pilot with UBS Tokenize to enable tokenized fund subscription and redemption flows through existing bank systems.

Swift positioned the ledger as an orchestration layer rather than a replacement for core back-end systems. The cooperative did not provide a public timetable for moving beyond the pilot or for wider commercial deployment, saying the initial phase will test interoperability, risk controls and client experience across multiple banks and jurisdictions.