Swift reveals luxury blockchain project: 100 banks involved, plans to replace existing cross-border settlement system

Swift, a global financial communications service provider, is currently recruiting other financial institutions to join its blockchain research and development project.

Swift will soon publicly announce details of the project, sales chief Stephen Grainger told representatives from banks, consulting firms and the media industry at a meeting at Swift's New York headquarters last week.

Grainger said:

We have a specific process for banks to participate and we will announce the list of participants by the end of the first quarter.

According to Swift, they are recruiting banks with high liquidity. The purpose of their proof-of-concept (PoC) project is to replace the outdated nostro system for cross-border payments and settlements.

The company believes that forgetting for a moment the foreign exchange reserves sitting on other banks’ books and participating in the proof-of-concept project will generate higher returns for stakeholders at all levels as they transform nostro capital into a yielding asset.

Swift believes that 100 banks will choose to join the project after detailed participation criteria and guidelines are released. The company also announced that they will open the project's API to developers at a hackathon in October this year.