Quick answer: SWIFT has run a series of experiments to see whether central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and tokenised assets built on different technologies can still move across borders through one shared connector. An early 2022 phase involved 14 central and commercial banks, and a later phase grew to 38 institutions testing digital trade, tokenised securities, and foreign-exchange settlement.
Updated 07/17/2026. By Jake Claver. Educational content, not investment advice.
Central banks around the world are building digital currencies on different platforms, with different standards. That creates a real risk: a world of digital “islands” that cannot easily pay one another. SWIFT’s CBDC work is aimed squarely at that problem, testing an interlinking layer so a payment can hop between networks without every institution rebuilding its systems.
The claims here rest on SWIFT’s own experiment releases plus reviews from the Bank for International Settlements and the World Bank, all linked below.
What SWIFT actually tested
SWIFT’s core idea is a connector that sits between different CBDC and tokenisation networks and orchestrates the messaging between them, rather than forcing everyone onto a single ledger. Its CBDC solution page frames the interlinking connector as a way for institutions to reuse existing infrastructure while transacting in new digital forms of money.
In the first phase, announced in 2022, SWIFT (working with Capgemini) demonstrated CBDC-to-CBDC transactions between separate distributed-ledger networks built on Quorum and Corda, plus flows between those networks and a traditional real-time gross settlement system, all through a single gateway (SWIFT experiment release).
The two phases and what changed
The first phase had 14 central and commercial banks trialling the CBDC connector, a group that included Banque de France, Deutsche Bundesbank, HSBC, NatWest, SMBC, Standard Chartered, UBS, and Wells Fargo. It proved the basic mechanic: different DLT networks could be interlinked for cross-border payments through one gateway.
A later phase widened both the participants and the use cases. In one of the larger collaborations on CBDCs, 38 institutions, including central banks, commercial banks, and market infrastructures, took part in experiments that tested digital trade, tokenised securities, and FX settlement (SWIFT interlinking experiments release). The reported result was that the connector could interlink multiple asset and cash networks and support atomic delivery-versus-payment, meaning the asset and the payment change hands together or not at all.
How the interlinking connector works
The design goal is interoperability, not a single global chain. The connector translates and routes instructions between networks that speak different technical languages, which is the same coordination role SWIFT already plays for cross-border messaging today. Standardized messaging matters here: the financial industry’s move to ISO 20022 gives these flows a common data structure, which makes interlinking far more practical.
The experiments also showed smart contracts and event-driven logic automating settlement once conditions are met, which points at trade flows that could run outside business hours rather than waiting on manual steps.
Why trade finance and FX settlement are the target
Trade finance runs on documents, checks, and trusted records, and it is exactly the kind of workflow where interoperable digital rails could cut delay and cost. That is the “taking the paper out of global trade” idea: moving trade and settlement steps onto systems that can talk to each other.
Foreign-exchange settlement is a second target. Settling the two legs of an FX trade at the same time reduces the risk that one side pays and the other does not, which is why atomic delivery-versus-payment across networks was a headline result of the experiments.
Where CBDCs stand and the fragmentation problem
Design questions for CBDCs are still open, and public-sector research has explored them in depth. MIT’s Digital Currency Initiative ran Project Hamilton to study a hypothetical CBDC’s core processing. The BIS Innovation Hub coordinates cross-border CBDC experiments, and its work on using CBDCs across borders lays out the interoperability models in detail. The World Bank review of CBDCs for cross-border payments surveys the experiments and the open questions. The common thread across all of them is fragmentation: without shared standards and connectors, digital currencies could end up harder to send abroad than money is today.
Why this matters
Cross-border payments are slow and expensive largely because value crosses many systems that do not natively connect. If an interlinking layer lets CBDCs and tokenised assets settle across networks, the practical payoff is faster settlement, less counterparty risk, and lower friction for trade. These are experiments and pilots, not deployed public money, so the honest read is to track which capabilities move from sandbox to production rather than assuming a finished system exists.
Common questions
What is SWIFT’s CBDC interlinking solution?
It is a connector that sits between different CBDC and tokenisation networks and orchestrates messaging between them, so institutions can move value across systems built on different technologies without replacing their existing infrastructure.
How many banks took part in the experiments?
An early 2022 phase involved 14 central and commercial banks, and a later phase grew to 38 institutions, including central banks, commercial banks, and market infrastructures.
What did the experiments demonstrate?
They showed CBDCs and tokenised assets moving across separate networks through one connector, including atomic delivery-versus-payment and automation of settlement steps using smart contracts and event-driven logic.
Do these experiments mean CBDCs are live on SWIFT?
No. They are experiments and trials aimed at interoperability. They test whether the approach works, not a deployed, general-use system.
Why does interoperability matter for cross-border payments?
Because central banks are building digital currencies on different platforms and standards, and without connectors and shared standards those currencies risk becoming isolated, which would make cross-border use harder rather than easier.
This content is educational only. It is not tax, legal, or investment advice. Check primary sources and speak with a qualified professional before making financial decisions.
