Swift Ledger Prepares for Tokenized Deposit Payments With 17 Banks, Including ANZ
Key Facts
ANZ Group is participating in Swift’s global trial of cross-border payments using tokenized bank deposits, among 17 banks Swift announced on July 9, 2026. The announcement places ANZ’s participation in the context of an initiative announced months earlier, rather than as a new addition in October. The list also includes First Abu Dhabi Bank and Mashreq, alongside Citi, HSBC, UBS and Standard Chartered. The trial targets live transactions through Swift’s distributed ledger, designed to coordinate the movement of tokenized deposits issued by banks and held on their books. ANZ said the ledger has the potential to help customers move money in real time and manage liquidity with greater flexibility.
Swift’s ledger serves as a shared coordination layer between banks, enabling tokenized deposits to move across borders, including overnight and on weekends. The deposits remain issued by banks and on their books, while the ledger does not replace existing final settlement systems. Swift said banks will operate their own environments and retain control of keys, assets and funding, with settlement carried out through existing real-time gross settlement systems. The proposed architecture thus combines a shared record for coordinating payments with the continued role of existing banking systems in completing settlement. Swift said it took 9 months to develop the ledger from concept to activation, in collaboration with international financial institutions.
The ledger trial comes as Swift says 75% of payments on its network reach beneficiary banks within 10 minutes, often within seconds. That figure puts the speed of existing payments in the background of efforts to expand transfer capabilities beyond normal business hours, including overnight and on weekends. ANZ sees access to real-time money transfers as potentially giving customers greater flexibility in managing liquidity. The Australian bank is participating alongside banks from different markets, including institutions in the UAE, broadening the range of participants in the test. ANZ said the shared ledger could serve as a secure link between banks, allowing tokenized deposits issued by different institutions to work together.
ANZ’s participation moved from the trial stage to a live transaction the group announced on September 30, 2026. The transaction involved U.S. dollar payments between Melbourne and New York, with BHP, Swift and Citi participating. ANZ said BHP used its account with the bank and its usual banking channel, while tokenized deposits and distributed ledger technology operated in the background. This meant the customer continued to use its existing account and channel during the cross-border transaction. ANZ said the trial showed the potential for a shared ledger to connect banks and enable interoperability between their tokenized deposits.
The move charts a path toward expanding the use of Swift’s ledger for interbank payments, while issuance of deposits and control of assets and funding remain with participating institutions. Swift said the ledger could pave the way for future innovations, including programmable money and agentic commerce. The initiative follows July’s announcement that 17 banks were preparing to test live transactions, then ANZ’s September announcement that it had completed a live transaction between Australia and New York. ANZ’s participation links the shared infrastructure trial with a banking use case in which the customer retained its usual account and channel. The available facts do not specify a date for a broader launch or a timetable for next steps.