Swift says banks are already using its blockchain ledger for live transfers, while a phone-number remittance test moves ahead

Swift said on Sept. 28, the opening day of Sibos in Miami, that most of the first 17 banks connected to its blockchain-based ledger have already used it for live 24/7 cross-border payments, moving tokenized funds across Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America. The network said transactions have been completed in five currencies: the euro, pound sterling, Hong Kong dollar, Singapore dollar, and U.S. dollar, with use cases spanning interbank settlement, corporate treasury, and bank liquidity management. On the same day, Swift also announced work with domestic instant payment systems including Spain’s Bizum, Australia’s PayID, and Brazil’s Pix to study whether cross-border transfers can be initiated with a phone number, email address, or virtual payment alias instead of bank account details. Swift said the project builds on its consumer payments framework launched in June, which now has more than 100 participating banks. Swift added that 75% of cross-border payments already reach the beneficiary bank within 10 minutes, but about 80% of total processing time is still spent in the “last mile” after funds leave the Swift network and enter the recipient country’s domestic banking system.