Swift starts blockchain ledger with initial set of 17 banks

By Marc Jones

LONDON, July 9 (Reuters) - Global financial messaging network Swift launched a blockchain-based shared ledger on Thursday with an initial set of 17 banks including Citi and HSBC, as part of a push to enable round-the-clock payments and compete with the emerging stablecoin industry.    Belgium-based Swift, which underpins the vast majority of international bank-to-bank messaging, said the new ledger would allow "tokenised" funds - which have the benefit of being able to be programmed for certain uses - to be moved 24 hours a day, including on weekends.    It advances one of the biggest attempts by the mainstream banking industry to harness blockchain technology, while also preserving the compliance and operational controls that global regulators require.

• The group of banks involved also includes UBS, BNP Paribas, BNY, Standard Chartered, MUFG, ANZ, DBS, Lloyds, and Wells Fargo among others.

• Swift said the banks' involvement showed "strong global demand" for the system that will allow banks' inhouse tokenised payments systems to interoperate with those of other institutions.

• The launch is the first practical application of the new ledger announced by Swift just last year. It could pave the way for future innovations including programmable money and so-called agentic commerce, where automated systems can execute payments and transactions on behalf of users.

• The initiative also reflects growing efforts by global banks to prepare for a future in which deposits, assets and payments are increasingly tokenised on digital ledgers while remaining within the regulated financial system.

• Swift facilitates cross-border payments between more than 11,500 banks and other financial services companies around the world. It estimates the transactions move the equivalent of world GDP every two to three days, between more than 200 countries.

• The blockchain ledger comes amid growing competition between mainstream finance firms and the $315 billion stablecoin industry, dominated by issuers Tether and Circle, which allow funds to be transferred directly without the need for intermediaries.

(Reporting by Marc Jones; editing by Susan Fenton)