HSBC and Standard Chartered have completed the first live cross-border bank-to-bank tokenized-deposit transaction on Swift’s blockchain-based ledger, taking the network from initial readiness into its first interbank use.
The two banks exchanged payment messages through the ledger and recorded the resulting obligations on HSBC’s Tokenised Deposit Service and Standard Chartered’s tokenized-deposit infrastructure. Swift’s ledger then matched and netted those obligations before final settlement was completed through existing systems.
Separate bank platforms were linked
The practical shift is interoperability between two banks’ separate tokenized-deposit platforms. According to the banks, that structure could help corporate and institutional clients move liquidity across institutions outside conventional operating hours, without requiring either bank to give up its own deposit infrastructure.
The announcement described the transfer as live and cross-border. It did not disclose the transaction value, the currencies used, or the geographic corridor. It also did not say whether the payment was ordinary production activity or a controlled live transaction.
Swift coordinated the process, but did not settle it
Swift’s role in the setup was coordination rather than final settlement. The claims created by the transfer remained tokenized-deposit obligations recorded by HSBC and Standard Chartered, while the shared ledger calculated what the two banks owed each other before existing systems completed settlement.
The design follows the model Swift outlined in July, when it said the ledger was ready for initial use and that 17 banks across six continents were preparing to pilot live transactions. Swift described the ledger as an orchestration layer for bank-issued tokenized deposits held on participating banks’ own ledgers. The goal was to let customer funds move overnight and on weekends before final settlement through existing systems.
Banks named in Swift’s July group
The 17-bank group Swift listed in July included HSBC, Standard Chartered, ANZ, BNP Paribas, BNY, Citi, DBS, First Abu Dhabi Bank, FirstRand, Itaú Unibanco, Lloyds Bank, Mashreq, MUFG Bank, OCBC, UBS, UOB and Wells Fargo.
Swift said the ledger’s functionality and availability will expand after the initial controlled go-live phase. The HSBC-Standard Chartered transaction marks the first live interbank use, while the payment’s value, currency pair and corridor remain undisclosed.