SWIFT Moves Toward Integrating Blockchain into Its Global Payments Network
SWIFT’s global payments system, a pillar of traditional financial infrastructure (TradFi), announced that it is incorporating a blockchain-based ledger into its network.
According to the institution, more than 30 banks and financial institutions are participating in the project, which is based on a prototype developed by Consensys, the team behind Ethereum. The goal is to enable international payments in real time, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
According to the statement, the new ledger seeks to expand SWIFT’s role as the primary financial communication channel, now in the digital environment, enabling banks to move tokenized and regulated values across different ecosystems.
Currently, SWIFT connects more than 11,000 financial institutions in over 200 countries. However, faced with criticism that it could become obsolete in the face of the rise of digital assets and stablecoins, the organization has been investing in blockchain and tokenization experiments for years in an attempt to adapt and maintain its relevance.
The project envisions the ledger functioning as a real-time record of transactions, organizing, validating, and sequencing transactions between institutions, in addition to enforcing its rules through smart contracts.
With this move, SWIFT demonstrates that it does not intend to lose ground to innovations in the crypto sector, but rather to integrate with them to remain a central link in the global financial system.