Swift to run traditional payments scheme, blockchain ledger in parallel

Global financial messaging network Swift is following a strategy of developing both its traditional payment scheme and blockchain-based ledger, as the cross-border payment ecosystem is evolving.

It has connected 17 banks including HSBC (0005), Standard Chartered (2888), Citi, DBS and OCBC from six continents to use the ledger built in nine months for 24/7 real-time payments, sending tokenised value between Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America, with five currencies – EUR, GBP, HKD, SGD and USD – for use cases including institution-to-institution settlement, corporate treasury and interbank funding, according to Swift’s website.

Meanwhile, with over 100 banks signed up, Swift will continue to improve the current payments scheme, ensuring cross-border payments have the same speed, transparency and predictability as domestic payments — 15 seconds from Turkey to Spain, 37 seconds from Australia to India, and just a minute from China to the US, its website showed.

𝗗𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗹𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗔𝗽𝗽 ↓