Sibos 2025: Swift integrates blockchain ledger into global infrastructure - Trade Treasury Payments

At Sibos 2025 in Frankfurt, Swift today announced the addition of a blockchain-based shared ledger to its technology infrastructure, a transformative development designed to enable instant, 24/7 cross-border transactions at unprecedented global scale across more than 200 countries and territories.

The implementation process has commenced, with Swift collaborating alongside more than 30 financial institutions spanning 16 countries to design and build the ledger. The initial focus is on real-time cross-border payments, and a conceptual prototype is being developed by Consensys.

Swift’s strategic vision and core functionality

“We provide powerful and effective rails today and are moving at a rapid pace with our community to create the infrastructure stack of the future,” stated Javier Pérez-Tasso, Swift CEO.

“Through this initial ledger concept, we are paving the way for financial institutions to take the payments experience to the next level with Swift’s proven and trusted platform at the centre of the industry’s digital transformation,” he added.

The ledger will function as a secure, real-time transaction log between financial institutions, recording, sequencing, and validating transactions while enforcing rules through smart contracts. 

Swift stresses that while it will provide the infrastructure, the types of tokens exchanged on the ledger remain the domain of commercial and central banks.

This development is a key component of Swift’s broader strategy to power a best-in-class payments experience through parallel innovation tracks, simultaneously upgrading existing fiat rails while creating future digital rails to maximise infrastructure choice for the industry.

The initiative has gained widespread support from a diverse coalition of global financial institutions. The names include HSBC, JP Morgan Chase, Citi, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, Standard Chartered, Wells Fargo, MUFG, Mizuho, ANZ, DBS Bank, OCBC, UOB, Westpac, Banco Santander, BBVA, NatWest, Societe Generale-FORGE, Crédit Agricole, Commerzbank, Royal Bank of Canada, TD Bank Group, BNY, FirstRand Bank, Absa, Saudi Awwal Bank, First Abu Dhabi Bank, Emirates NBD, Shinhan Bank, Itaú Unibanco, Bradesco, and Banorte.

The timeline and way forward

Complementing the ledger announcement, Swift also revealed plans to roll out client solutions specifically designed to orchestrate between different systems, supporting both private and public networks to ensure efficient and synchronised transactions across various use cases.

Swift will work at a pace to complete the prototype in phase one and define future work phases. Following the successful development and proof of concept, Swift plans to collaborate with its global community on implementation, laying the foundational infrastructure for an instant, always-on digital payment ecosystem operating at a global scale.