On Monday, Swift revealed that it is working with Consensys to integrate blockchain into its global cross-border payments network. What do we know?
Swift and Consensys collaborate on cross-border payment solution
The announcement came this morning: global interbank systems giant Swift is currently working with Consensys to launch a blockchain dedicated to real-time cross-border payments.
In total, financial institutions from 16 different countries are working on the project, including central banks and well-known commercial banks such as Crédit Agricole, JPMorgan Chase, Société Générale – FORGE, and Citi:
Available 24/7, this network will facilitate “the reliable and scalable movement of tokenized value” in an interoperable manner between different networks through smart contracts.
Javier Pérez-Tasso, CEO of Swift, expressed his enthusiasm for the project:
Today, we provide powerful and efficient rails and are rapidly evolving with our community to create the infrastructure of the future. With this initial concept of a distributed ledger, we are paving the way for financial institutions to take the payment experience to the next level, thanks to Swift’s proven and reliable platform, which is at the heart of the sector’s digital transformation.
In recent years, Swift has made headlines on several occasions for its experiments with blockchain, particularly in the area of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and/or through its partnership with Chainlink (LINK).
As for Consensys, while the Ethereum (ETH) infrastructure developer has been in the news lately for its Linea layer 2, it should be noted that this is indeed a “conceptual prototype” and that the players who will participate in the validation and hypothetical decentralization of the network have not been mentioned.
Whatever form this project takes, it proves once again that blockchain technologies are becoming increasingly established in the world of traditional finance.
