Swift, Consensys collaborate to develop blockchain payment network

The international interbank messaging network Swift is working with Consensys to develop a blockchain-based payment system. The project involves about 30 financial institutions and aims to build a 24-hour real-time cross-border payment infrastructure.

According to a statement on the 29th (local time), Swift will collaborate with Ethereum (ETH) developer Consensys to design a new blockchain. In the initial phase, Consensys will produce a conceptual prototype and will later define a phased development roadmap. Swift said, "The new ledger is about extending the role of financial messaging into a digital environment," and said it also plans to support tokenized asset exchange.

Swift is an international interbank messaging network used by over 200 countries and about 11,500 institutions, supporting most global payments. It does not move funds directly but plays a role in reducing errors and fraud risk, and its influence in financial infrastructure is so great that cutting off access alone can have sanctioning effects.

This collaboration is not Swift's first blockchain attempt. In 2024, it conducted a tokenized fund settlement experiment in the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)'s Project Guardian together with UBS Asset Management and Chainlink, and in the same year it also launched digital asset pilot projects with banks in North America, Europe and Asia.

Swift explained, "Shared ledgers have limitations when it comes to storing large volumes of data," adding, "For this reason the messaging layer plays an important linking role." The industry views this cooperation as a catalyst that could accelerate the convergence of traditional finance and blockchain.