SWIFT and BNY Mellon Pilot Blockchain Payments Ledger
SWIFT is collaborating with BNY Mellon to design a blockchain-based ledger for cross-border payments and tokenized assets. The initiative aims to create a more connected and efficient financial ecosystem, signaling SWIFT's continued exploration of DLT to modernize the core of international finance.
This collaboration is part of a broader series of experiments by SWIFT to tackle the persistent challenges of cross-border payments: high costs, slow speeds, and complex compliance checks. The global volume for these transactions is projected to exceed $250 trillion by 2027, yet they can cost up to ten times more than domestic payments and take several days to settle through the traditional correspondent banking system. SWIFT's exploration of blockchain is not new; it began investigating the technology as early as 2015 by joining the Hyperledger project. Previous proofs-of-concept focused on using DLT to improve real-time reconciliation of nostro accounts, the foreign currency accounts banks hold with each other, which is a significant operational cost in international finance. This initiative goes beyond messaging to explore shared ledger technology for the actual settlement of tokenized assets. BNY Mellon, a key partner, has been actively developing its own tokenized deposit services, which create digital versions of client funds on a blockchain to enable instant transfer and settlement, a project led by their Treasury Services executive Carl Slabicki. The core technical challenge being addressed is interoperability—making different blockchain networks and traditional financial systems communicate seamlessly. SWIFT's recent pilots, in collaboration with Chainlink and other financial institutions like Citi and BNP Paribas, successfully demonstrated that its existing infrastructure could serve as a single point of access to multiple public and private blockchains. This particular pilot with BNY Mellon is part of a larger research initiative involving over 30 major banks testing blockchain-based rails. The project is also exploring the use of an interbank settlement token, similar to a regulated stablecoin, and is leveraging Linea, a Layer-2 network from ConsenSys, chosen for its privacy and scalability features. The move is seen as a direct response to the growing private sector innovation in cross-border payments from players like Ripple and the rise of stablecoins for settlement. By building a permissioned, blockchain-based system, major financial players aim to create a 24/7 payment infrastructure that offers the benefits of DLT—speed and transparency—while maintaining regulatory compliance and control.
