Swift Prepares 17 Banks for Live Tests of Blockchain Payment Ledger

Swift is moving its blockchain payment project into live transaction testing with 17 major banks across six continents, according to a CoinDesk report. The bank-owned messaging network said its shared ledger is ready for initial use by participating institutions, with UBS, BNP Paribas, BNY, Citi, HSBC and Wells Fargo among the banks involved.

The development matters because it pushes tokenized deposits closer to mainstream banking infrastructure. Swift’s goal is to let banks move customer funds overnight and on weekends, addressing a long-standing gap in cross-border payments while keeping final settlement tied to existing payment systems.

Swift serves more than 11,500 financial institutions and announced the shared ledger platform in October. The company has positioned the ledger as a way for banks to handle transactions involving regulated digital money, stablecoins and tokenized assets across multiple blockchains without replacing the payment rails they already use.

Tokenized deposits are digital representations of commercial bank money issued by banks on their own ledgers. Swift says the new ledger gives banks a shared layer for these assets, while extending traditional finance controls into digital money workflows.

The rollout comes as banks, payment companies and crypto firms continue testing faster cross-border settlement models. Stablecoin issuers already support transfers outside normal banking hours, but banks are emphasizing regulatory, compliance and risk controls as reasons to pursue bank-led infrastructure for tokenized deposits.