SWIFT launches Hyperledger Besu pilot with 40+ banks

A blockchain ledger is a shared transaction log: every participant sees the same record instead of reconciling copies after money moves. Swift says it is now building that kind of ledger for banks’ cross-border payments. (swift.com) Swift said on March 30, 2026 that it finished the design phase and started building a minimum viable product, or MVP, for real-world transactions later this year. The first use case is 24/7 cross-border payments between banks using tokenised deposits. (swift.com) The software base is Hyperledger Besu, an Ethereum-compatible blockchain client originally developed by Consensys and now maintained as open-source infrastructure. Swift said the ledger will record and validate interbank payment commitments while banks keep control of their own keys, assets, funding and settlement. (swift.com) (consensys.io) In plain terms, Swift is trying to add a shared coordination layer on top of existing bank plumbing rather than replace the plumbing itself. Final settlement can still happen through real-time gross settlement systems, correspondent banking links or other mechanisms agreed by participants. (swift.com) That matters because cross-border bank payments still pass through time zones, cut-off windows and separate ledgers that often require manual matching after the fact. Swift says the shared ledger is meant to support instant, always-on transaction flows at global scale while preserving its existing compliance and messaging standards. (swift.com 1) (swift.com 2) The bank group has also grown. Swift said in September 2025 that more than 30 financial institutions were involved in designing the ledger; its payments page now says that has risen to more than 40. (swift.com 1) (swift.com 2) HSBC is one of the banks publicly attached to the effort. In a Swift case study, HSBC’s Manish Kohli said the bank has already launched tokenised deposits in Hong Kong, Singapore, Luxembourg and the UK, but proprietary systems do not move easily across banks. (swift.com) Swift is framing the ledger as one track in a broader overhaul. Alongside the blockchain project, it is also developing new network rules for faster consumer and small-business payments, including upfront cost transparency, full-value delivery and end-to-end visibility. (swift.com) The pitch is not that banks suddenly settle on a public crypto rail. The pitch is that a Swift-run ledger, built on open-source blockchain software, can coordinate tokenised bank money across institutions without giving up the controls banks already use. (swift.com 1) (swift.com 2) If Swift hits its 2026 transaction target, the test will show whether the messaging network that links more than 11,500 institutions can also run a shared ledger for always-on payments. (swift.com)