HSBC and Standard Chartered have executed the first live tokenized deposit transaction on SWIFT’s blockchain-based ledger, marking a milestone for digital money in banking. The payment messages moved between HSBC’s Tokenized Deposit Service and Standard Chartered’s tokenized deposit infrastructure, with obligations recorded on both systems. SWIFT’s ledger acted as an orchestration layer, matching and netting obligations before final settlement via existing payment rails. Seventeen banks from six continents are preparing to pilot live transactions. The ledger is built on Hyperledger Besu, an Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible architecture, and is operated by SWIFT. A rival US network, called The Bridge, is being developed by The Clearing House with JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo, targeting the first half of 2027.
HSBC and Standard Chartered executed the first live tokenized deposit transaction on SWIFT’s blockchain-based ledger on August 19, six weeks after the network opened to an initial cohort of 17 banks. Payment messages moved between HSBC’s Tokenized Deposit Service (TDS) and Standard Chartered’s own tokenized deposit infrastructure, with the resulting obligations recorded on both banks’ systems.
SWIFT’s ledger worked as an orchestration layer, matching and netting the obligations between the two institutions before final settlement ran through existing payment rails. “HSBC’s interoperability transaction with Standard Chartered via SWIFT is a landmark moment for the promise of tokenised deposits,” said Lewis Sun, Head of Digital Currencies at HSBC.
Mark Willis, Head of Emerging Payments, Transaction Services and Digital Assets at Standard Chartered, noted that “tokenized deposits are a key pillar of Standard Chartered’s digital assets strategy, which aims to build end-to-end solutions.” SWIFT says the ledger MVP is built on open-source foundations, using an Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible architecture based on Hyperledger Besu, and is designed to integrate with the broader digital asset ecosystem.
SWIFT operates the ledger itself, handling orchestration of transaction workflows, validation of funding commitments, and coordination of interbank processes. Consensys built the conceptual prototype when Swift announced the project in September 2025. Seventeen banks from six continents are preparing to pilot live transactions, among them ANZ, BNP Paribas, BNY, Citi, DBS, MUFG, UBS, and Wells Fargo.
HSBC has put bank money on a ledger before, joining a $300 million digital bond issuance with SGX and Temasek that cut primary settlement from five days to two. “With our new ledger capability, we’re extending the trust and stability of established finance into the frontiers of digital money,” said Thierry Chilosi, Chief Business Officer at Swift.
American banks are building a competing rail. The Clearing House is developing a tokenized deposit network called The Bridge with JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo, targeted at the first half of 2027 and open to all US banks. Bank of America’s Mark Monaco said clients are not “beating down the door” for tokenized deposits yet. SWIFT moves the equivalent of world GDP every two to three days across more than 200 markets, with 75% of payments on its network reaching beneficiary banks within 10 minutes.
