Swift today announced that its blockchain-based ledger is ready for initial use, enabling early adopter financial institutions to support 24/7 cross-border payments with tokenised deposits.

Seventeen banks from six continents are preparing to pilot live transactions, reflecting strong global demand for the new addition to Swift’s technology stack and its ability to unlock faster, flexible money movement across the world.

The shared ledger provides participating banks with a secure orchestration layer for bank-issued tokenised deposits on their own ledgers, enabling them to move funds for customers — including overnight and on weekends — before completing final settlement through existing systems. Banks benefit from improved client experience and global liquidity efficiency without compromising compliance, credit, risk and control standards embedded in existing payment processing.

Thierry Chilosi, Chief Business Officer at Swift, said:

“With our new ledger capability, we’re extending the trust and stability of established finance into the frontiers of digital money. It allows tokenised value to move across borders with the velocity and flexibility modern commerce expects, while maintaining the same high levels of resiliency, security, and compliance global finance requires. The strong support from banks shows the practical value of this approach — one that will help scale benefits globally while creating a foundation for future innovation in areas like programmable money and agentic commerce.”

Banks that will pilot initial live transactions on the ledger include:

• ANZ
• FirstRand Bank Limited
• OCBC
• BNP Paribas
• HSBC
• Standard Chartered
• BNY
• Itaú Unibanco
• UBS
• Citi
• Lloyds Bank
• UOB
• DBS
• Mashreq
• Wells Fargo
• First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB)
• MUFG Bank.