SWIFT's Blockchain Ledger Goes Live: 17 Banks to Pilot 24/7 Tokenized Cross-Border Payments

Speed from Concept to Activation

SWIFT moved from the initial announcement to operational readiness in approximately nine months. The ledger was first announced in September 2025, and SWIFT designed and built the system with feedback from international financial institutions over that period . The design phase was completed by March 30, 2026, at which point SWIFT confirmed it was moving to MVP (minimum viable product) construction, with live transactions planned before the end of 2026 . The July 9 announcement marks that the ledger is now ready for the controlled go-live pilot phase . It is being built on open-source foundations using an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible architecture based on Hyperledger Besu .

Which Banks Are Participating? (Full List of 17)

The following banks are preparing to pilot live transactions on the ledger, as confirmed by SWIFT's press release and reporting :

What Executives Are Saying About Benefits and Future Potential

Thierry Chilosi, Chief Business Officer at SWIFT, said the ledger extends "the trust and stability of established finance into the frontiers of digital money," enabling 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. He highlighted that the strong bank support "shows the practical value of this approach" and that the ledger creates "a foundation for future innovation in areas like programmable money and agentic commerce" .

Lisa Vasic, Managing Director Transaction Banking at ANZ, said SWIFT's digital ledger initiative is "an important step in advancing real-time, always-on cross-border payment capabilities" with strong potential to help customers move funds in real-time and manage liquidity more flexibly .

Pierre Fersztand, Global Head of Cash Management, Payments, Trade Solutions and Factoring at BNP Paribas, called it "a significant milestone in the evolution of cross-border payments" and reaffirmed BNP Paribas' commitment to "industrialising digital finance at scale" to deliver measurable value to corporate clients through faster, more transparent, and more secure transactions .

Debopama Sen, Head of Payments, Services at Citi, said the launch represents "an important step towards enabling always-on payments and liquidity" and that leveraging SWIFT's innovative blockchain-based messaging infrastructure allows Citi to "create interoperable payment solutions" with greater speed, resilience, and security .

Lim Soon Chong, Group Head of Global Transaction Services at DBS, noted that blockchain-based ledgers and tokenised money enable banks to deliver "greater speed, transparency and real-time liquidity." He emphasized that "interoperability with existing payment rails and application in real world use cases will be critical for these capabilities to scale" .