Lamine Brahimi, co-founder and managing partner of crypto custody and tokenization firm Taurus, said in an interview with CoinDesk that banks need three capabilities to connect to Swift’s new blockchain ledger: their own permissioned chain to interact with the Swift ledger, wallet functionality, and tokenization and smart contract capabilities so they can integrate Swift’s smart contracts.
Ledger acts as an orchestration layer
Brahimi said that structure means Swift’s ledger is not designed to replace banks’ internal systems. It serves as an orchestration layer that helps institutions move tokenized deposits across borders on a 24/7 basis. Final settlement still takes place through existing arrangements, and banks must continue to hold and manage tokenized deposits, digital asset wallets, and the related smart contracts on their own.
Banks are already preparing live use cases
Swift said in July that 17 banks were preparing real-time tokenized deposit transactions. In August, HSBC and Standard Chartered completed the first real-time interbank transaction. DBS and Citi then carried out a weekend cross-border U.S. dollar payment, cutting settlement time from as long as two business days to a matter of minutes.
Taurus says it has completed Swift integration
Brahimi said the extra infrastructure should not be viewed as a flaw in Swift’s design. He described the ledger as an early-stage product, but one that gives banks a choice between existing payment rails and tokenized deposits that can move around the clock. Taurus announced in August that it had completed its Swift integration and could provide those three layers of capability through a single platform.
He added that tokenized deposits saw very limited use before Swift’s announcement and were mainly adopted by large global banks such as JPMorgan. Under the Swift model, deposits remain on banks’ balance sheets, which sets them apart from stablecoins issued outside the banking system.