Swift has announced that it will add a blockchain-based shared ledger to its technology infrastructure, a pivotal step for global finance that promises, it says, “to make instant, always-on cross-border transactions possible at unprecedented scale”.

The payments group has already kicked off work with a group of more than 30 global financial institutions to design and build the ledger, focused on a first use case of real-time 24/7 cross-border payments and starting with a conceptual prototype by Consensys. Swift will work at pace to complete the prototype in phase one and define its future phases of work.

The ledger will extend Swift's financial communication role into a digital environment “facilitating banks’ trusted and scalable movement of regulated tokenized value across digital ecosystems”.

Swift’s focus is on the infrastructure. The types of tokens that will be exchanged on the ledger is the territory of commercial and central banks, and Swift will work with them on how to complement and make use of this new infrastructure.

The payments group envisages that the ledger – a secure, real-time log of transactions between financial institutions – will record, sequence and validate transactions and enforce rules through smart contracts.

The ledger will be built for interoperability, both with existing and emerging networks, while, the payments group says, “maintaining the trust, resilience and compliance synonymous with Swift critical to the secure functioning of global finance”.

Financial institutions from 16 countries are providing feedback on the design of the ledger; and, following successful development and proof of concept, the payments group will work with its global community on implementation.

“We provide powerful and effective rails today and are moving at a rapid pace with our community to create the infrastructure stack of the future,” states Javier Pérez-Tasso, Swift’s CEO. “Through this initial ledger concept, we are paving the way for financial institutions to take the payments experience to the next level with our proven and trusted platform at the centre of the industry’s digital transformation.”