HSBC and Standard Chartered Run First Live Tokenized Deposit Transfer on SWIFT’s Blockchain Ledger

HSBC and Standard Chartered executed the first live tokenized deposit transaction on SWIFT’s blockchain-based ledger, the two banks said 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.