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SWIFT Innovation Chief Rebukes Ripple Pitch, Says Banks Want Neutral Rails

His LinkedIn post stresses co-governed standards as the prerequisite for banks adopting public-ledger payments.

Overview

  • SWIFT CIO Tom Zschach wrote that “surviving lawsuits isn’t resilience,” arguing institutions will not operate on a competitor’s rails.
  • He said banks want neutral, shared governance and sector-wide standards not controlled by any single balance sheet.
  • Zschach described public blockchains without legal enforceability, privacy and compliance as “a fast engine with no cockpit.”
  • He framed public chains as a useful execution substrate that finance will absorb only once the trust layer is in place.
  • Coverage noted long-running criticism of Ripple’s influence over XRP, citing escrow concentrations reported by journalists, while Ripple maintains the XRP Ledger is decentralized.