SWIFT Moves Into Ledger-Based Future With Shared Blockchain for Tokenised Asset Transactions

SWIFT, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication and the backbone of global financial messaging, has announced plans to develop a blockchain-based shared ledger that will enable banks and financial institutions to record, sequence and validate tokenised asset transactions and real-time cross-border payments. This marks a major strategic shift in how traditional finance infrastructure will interact with emerging digital ecosystems — bridging existing messaging rails with blockchain-enabled settlement and digital value transfer.

The shared ledger initiative builds on SWIFT’s successful digital asset interoperability trials with partners such as BNP Paribas Securities Services, Intesa Sanpaolo and Societe Generale — Forge, demonstrating the feasibility of transferring tokenised value securely across existing financial networks. SWIFT’s vision is to expand the trusted financial messaging network into a 24/7, real-time digital settlement layer capable of supporting regulated tokens, stablecoins and other digitally represented financial assets.

From Messaging System to Digital Asset Ledger

For decades, SWIFT’s core strength has been its secure, ubiquitous messaging infrastructure, which processes billions of payment, settlement and securities instructions between more than 11,500 financial institutions in over 200 countries. Historically, SWIFT did not handle the settlement of value — its protocols enabled secure communication, while actual settlement occurred through correspondent banking and clearing systems.

However, the rapid rise of tokenisation — the process of representing real-world assets (such as currency, bonds, deposits and securities) as digital tokens — and the growing demand for faster, cheaper, and more transparent settlement have pushed SWIFT to explore more integrated solutions. The shared blockchain ledger represents an effort to extend its infrastructure beyond messaging into the realm of value transfer itself.

According to SWIFT’s public statements, the shared ledger is being designed to record and validate regulated, tokenised transactions in real time, providing banks with a reliable, auditable, and interoperable foundation for digital finance. In essence, the ledger will act as a trusted digital layer on top of SWIFT’s messaging network, enabling participants to move tokenised assets seamlessly between networks without sacrificing the security and compliance frameworks SWIFT is known for.

How the Shared Ledger Will Work

Although still under development, the shared ledger’s architecture is being co-designed with more than 30 global banks and financial institutions. Early collaborators include major names spanning multiple continents, from JPMorgan Chase, HSBC and Deutsche Bank to Citi, BNP Paribas and Standard Chartered. These institutions are helping shape the prototype and use cases for the platform.

The core features of the shared ledger are expected to include:

• Real-time, 24/7 transaction recording and validation, enabling payments and asset movements without dependence on traditional banking hours.
• Support for tokenised assets, including tokenised deposits, tokenised securities, and regulated stablecoins, allowing seamless transfer between financial institutions and blockchain ecosystems.
• Interoperability with existing SWIFT infrastructure and messaging standards, including ISO 20022 and ISO 15022, ensuring compatibility with legacy systems while enabling digital finance innovation.
• Smart-contract-enabled compliance and rules enforcement, allowing transactions to be verified and executed in line with regulatory requirements.

The ledger is being developed with an emphasis on integrating traditional financial rails with emerging digital asset platforms, reducing fragmentation and lowering operational barriers for institutions adopting blockchain-based settlement.

Why This Matters: Tokenised Assets and the Future of Finance

Tokenisation — the creation of digital tokens that represent ownership of tangible or financial assets — has gained momentum in recent years as institutions seek more efficient, transparent and programmable settlement mechanisms. It promises benefits such as reduced reconciliation, faster settlement times, fractional ownership, and richer data traceability.

Despite strong interest, tokenisation has faced hurdles around interoperability and fragmentation: different blockchains host different assets using diverse protocols, making it difficult for institutions to transact between networks without building bespoke integrations. By introducing a shared ledger capable of connecting disparate financial networks, SWIFT aims to remove such barriers.

Importantly, SWIFT’s approach does not compete with existing blockchain protocols but rather seeks to interoperate with them while retaining its established role in secure financial communication. This could help institutional adoption by providing a trusted, compliant on-ramp for regulated tokenised transactions that ties into banks’ existing infrastructure and regulatory frameworks.

Strategic Vision: Interoperability and Digital Finance

SWIFT’s leadership has framed the shared ledger as part of a broader ambition to unlock the benefits of digital finance on a global scale — not just payments, but potential use cases across FX, securities, tokenised deposits and more. Recent interoperability experiments have already shown that it is technically feasible to transfer tokenised values across blockchains using SWIFT’s secure infrastructure as a bridge, demonstrating the potential for richer connectivity between traditional finance and digital ecosystems.

For instance, SWIFT has explored how its infrastructure can serve as a single point of connectivity to multiple blockchain networks, reducing operational complexity for institutions who otherwise would need to build multiple direct integrations. This aligns with broader industry goals to standardise blockchain adoption and accelerate global financial innovation.

Moreover, the initiative complements ongoing work such as live digital asset transaction trials planned for 2025, where SWIFT aims to demonstrate the viability of tokenised deposits, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and regulated asset transfers on its network. These pilots reflect a shift from experimental tests to real-world applications.

Challenges and the Road Ahead

Despite its promise, the shared ledger initiative also faces challenges. Regulatory clarity around digital assets varies by jurisdiction, requiring careful alignment between global standards and local compliance. Additionally, integrating a blockchain-based ledger with existing infrastructure at SWIFT’s scale — encompassing thousands of institutions — demands robust security, governance and risk controls.

Industry observers also note that while blockchain can significantly reduce settlement times and increase transparency, the technology must scale to meet the high throughput and stringent reliability expected by global banks. SWIFT’s ability to converge blockchain innovation with institutional requirements will be a key determinant of success.

Still, the consortium’s broad participation and SWIFT’s global reach position the initiative to play a pivotal role in shaping how tokenised assets and digital currencies become part of mainstream financial infrastructure.

Conclusion

SWIFT’s plan to build a shared blockchain-based ledger for tokenised asset transactions represents a defining transition in global finance. By combining its trusted secure messaging network with modern distributed ledger technology, SWIFT is aiming to bridge traditional financial rails with digital asset ecosystems, enabling real-time, cross-border value transfer that is compliant, interoperable and scalable.

This move does not merely upgrade legacy systems — it lays the groundwork for a future where regulated tokenised assets can co-exist with fiat transactions, providing financial institutions with a unified, resilient infrastructure for the digital age.