Swift has showcased new progress in its efforts to modernise global payments infrastructure, highlighting advances in both real-time consumer payments and tokenised cross-border transactions.
Speaking at Sibos 2026 in Miami, the financial messaging network outlined how its consumer payments framework and blockchain ledger are helping financial institutions deliver faster, more transparent international payments across both traditional and digital financial systems.
According to Swift, more than 100 financial institutions are either live or preparing to go live with its consumer payments framework, which extends the speed and transparency of Swift’s network to end users.
The framework is already enabling significantly faster payment experiences on major international corridors, with transfers from Turkey to Spain completed in 15 seconds, Australia to India in 37 seconds and Brazil to the US in around one minute.
At the same time, Swift reported that most of the 17 financial institutions participating in its blockchain ledger initiative have now conducted 24/7 real-time payments using tokenised value across multiple regions, including Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America.
The participating institutions have transacted using EUR, GBP, HKD, SGD and USD for use cases including corporate treasury, interbank funding and institution-to-institution settlement.
Opening Sibos 2026, Swift CEO Javier Pérez-Tasso said the distinction between traditional and decentralised finance is becoming increasingly irrelevant.
“The question is not anymore about Tradfi or Defi. It’s not either or,” he said.
“The Swift platform will allow you to move any form of regulated value – whether it is fiat or tokenised – at global scale.”
Swift said the blockchain ledger has been designed as a secure orchestration layer for tokenised deposits, allowing financial institutions to conduct around-the-clock transactions while maintaining existing settlement arrangements and banking infrastructure.
The organisation also highlighted progress towards the G20’s cross-border payments objectives, noting that while 75% of Swift payments already reach the beneficiary bank within 10 minutes, a significant proportion of delays traditionally occur after transactions leave the Swift network.
By combining faster payment processing, greater transparency and tokenised infrastructure, Swift believes it can help create a more seamless international payments experience for both consumers and businesses.
Looking ahead, the organisation said it is working with banks and domestic instant payment schemes globally to make international payments as simple as sending a text message or email.
