SWIFT plans to drive digital asset integration into the traditional banking infrastructure in 2025 by conducting a series of large-scale trials and creating a unified network for central bank digital currencies (CBDC) and other digital assets.
The team at SWIFT, the international interbank transfer system, shared plans for a large-scale trial of ways to use digital assets within traditional banking systems in 2025. Financial institutions from North America, Europe, and Asia will participate in the tests.
The initiative aims to integrate CBDCs and tokenized assets into the traditional banking infrastructure, significantly simplifying access to digital assets for financial institutions. Participants will evaluate SWIFT’s ability to create a unified network to manage multi-currency transactions and operations across multiple digital asset classes.
As part of the trial, SWIFT plans to test the use of digital assets for:
- making payments;
- using them in foreign exchange transactions;
- trading securities.
In particular, project participants will test payments using different CBDCs to enable multi-registered Delivery-versus-Payment (DvP) and Payment-versus-Payment (PvP) transactions. In this way, SWIFT aims to build a bridge between digital assets and traditional currencies, providing a smoother and more accessible infrastructure for global financial transactions.
According to Tom Zschach, SWIFT’s Chief Innovation Officer, the successful use of digital assets on a global scale is only possible if they’re fully compatible with traditional financial systems. He believes the company’s developments will make it possible to realize this task, covering various forms of value on one platform.
Since 2022, SWIFT is exploring the possibility of cross-border payments using CBDCs, making significant progress in their compatibility. In 2023, the SWIFT team began developing technical tools for the global integration of digital assets into financial processes. In 2024, the company proposed a universal ledger model for digital assets.
