Overview

• SWIFT announced at Sibos in Frankfurt that work has begun on a conceptual prototype focused first on real-time, always-on international payments, with no production timeline disclosed.
• Consensys was engaged to build the prototype, and the shared ledger is envisaged to record, sequence and validate transactions in real time and enforce rules through smart contracts.
• More than 30 institutions are participating in design and governance, including JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citi, Wells Fargo, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, Santander, MUFG, OCBC and Emirates NBD.
• The initiative targets interoperability between existing fiat rails and emerging forms of digital money such as stablecoins, tokenized bank deposits and central bank digital currencies.
• Key technical choices remain undecided, including whether to operate on Ethereum mainnet or Consensys’ Linea network, alongside open questions on scalability, privacy and regulatory coordination.