IBM has connected its Digital Asset Haven platform to Swift’s blockchain-based shared ledger, giving financial institutions a new way to instruct tokenized deposit transactions using existing ISO 20022 payment messages.
IBM announced the integration on September 24, 2026, alongside a separate beta version of Digital Asset Haven designed to run entirely inside customers’ own data centres on IBM Z and IBM LinuxONE infrastructure.
The Swift connection is being introduced as a beta feature. IBM said Digital Asset Haven clients can connect to permissioned blockchain networks, including Swift’s shared ledger, through its new ISO 20022 Messaging Adapter.
The adapter is designed to connect Swift ISO 20022 messages with on-chain transactions. This allows participating institutions to use payment message formats and operational processes they already have rather than creating separate blockchain-specific workflows.
Swift’s ledger supports bank-issued tokenized deposits for 24-hour, seven-day-a-week payment activity ahead of final settlement through existing financial systems. Swift remains a global financial messaging network connecting 12,500 financial institutions across more than 200 markets.
Swift first announced its blockchain-based shared ledger on September 29, 2025, at Sibos. At the time, Swift said it was working with more than 30 financial institutions and Consensys on a shared digital ledger, with an initial focus on real-time, 24/7 cross-border payments.
The project later expanded. Swift said in July 2026 that its ledger had moved from concept to activation within nine months and was being prepared for initial use by 17 banks across six continents.
Those banks are ANZ, BNP Paribas, BNY, Citi, DBS, First Abu Dhabi Bank, FirstRand Bank, HSBC, Itaú Unibanco, Lloyds Bank, Mashreq, MUFG Bank, OCBC, Standard Chartered, UBS, UOB and Wells Fargo.
The first live activity followed shortly afterwards.
On August 19, Standard Chartered and HSBC announced the first live cross-border transaction involving tokenized deposits on Swift’s blockchain-based ledger. The transaction demonstrated interoperability between regulated bank-issued tokenized deposits through the Swift ledger.
On September 2, Citi announced live transactions with First Abu Dhabi Bank and OCBC. Citi said the transactions extended the project into the Middle East and Southeast Asia, with the banks conducting live transactions in US dollars on Swift’s ledger.
On September 10, DBS, OCBC and UOB announced the completion of live domestic Singapore-dollar transactions using tokenized deposits on the ledger. The three banks described the transactions as the first live interbank transactions using tokenized deposits among Singapore’s three local banks.
These transactions show the ledger being used across different banking relationships while the participating institutions retain their own banking and digital-asset infrastructure.
Swift’s architecture is designed as an orchestration layer rather than a replacement for existing settlement systems. Final settlement can continue through established mechanisms such as real-time gross settlement systems and other financial-market infrastructure.
IBM said the integration gives participating clients access to tokenized deposit networks while allowing them to continue using established Swift standards and their own compliance processes.
Digital Asset Haven itself was launched by IBM in October 2025 with Dfns. IBM designed the platform to help banks, governments and other regulated organisations manage digital assets through capabilities covering wallets, key management, transaction signing, governance and blockchain connectivity.
The platform uses Hyperledger Besu connectivity and provides tools for transaction management and policy-based controls. IBM has offered SaaS and hybrid deployment options since its launch.
Tokenized deposits are distinct from cryptocurrencies. The Bank for International Settlements describes tokenized deposits as commercial bank deposits represented on a programmable or tokenized ledger. They remain liabilities of the issuing banks and are intended to remain redeemable or transferable at par with ordinary bank deposits.
That structure is central to Swift’s approach. The participating banks issue and maintain the tokenized deposits, while the shared ledger provides a common infrastructure for coordinating transactions between institutions.
IBM’s announcement also includes an on-premises expansion of Digital Asset Haven.
The new beta deployment is designed to run entirely within a customer’s own data centre on IBM Z or IBM LinuxONE, without dependence on public cloud infrastructure.
IBM said organisations can deploy the platform within customer-managed Red Hat OpenShift environments. The deployment keeps the solution layer and key-management layer inside the institution’s own IBM infrastructure.
The on-premises version includes hardware-backed security using IBM Crypto Express hardware security modules. IBM also said confidential computing and secured environment partitioning can separate production, testing and development environments.
The deployment supports structured key ceremonies and cold-storage operations through IBM Offline Signing Orchestrator. IBM said the processes can generate documentation for use with regulators.
IBM also says its on-premises version maintains the same architecture, application programming interfaces and workflows as its SaaS and hybrid SaaS offerings.
For certain specified configurations, IBM says the infrastructure can achieve 99.999999 percent availability. The figure comes from IBM’s internal measurements and projections and depends on a specific combination of IBM LinuxONE Rockhopper 5, IBM z/VM, Red Hat OpenShift, GDPS, IBM DS8000 storage and related resiliency technologies. IBM states that application-induced outages are excluded and that other hardware and software configurations may provide different availability characteristics.
The Swift integration comes as other payment technology companies also begin adapting their infrastructure to the ledger.
On September 22, ACI Worldwide announced that ACI Connetic would support payments orchestrated through Swift’s ledger alongside existing payment flows. ACI said the capability is designed to let banks process tokenized deposit payments and traditional payment types through the same operating model.
IBM’s announcement places Digital Asset Haven within that developing infrastructure. The platform combines wallet and key-management functions with blockchain connectivity, while its ISO 20022 adapter provides the link between existing bank payment messaging and transactions on Swift’s shared ledger.
Swift’s July announcement said the ledger is initially focused on tokenized deposits and 24/7 cross-border payments, while also providing a foundation for future applications involving programmable money and other forms of regulated digital value.
The initiative is therefore moving through several stages at the same time. Swift has activated its ledger, banks have begun conducting controlled live transactions, payment technology providers are adding support for it, and IBM is providing another route for financial institutions to connect their existing payment infrastructure to the system.
IBM’s latest release does not replace Swift’s existing payment network or existing settlement infrastructure. Instead, it adds a blockchain connectivity layer intended to allow banks to use tokenized deposits while continuing to operate with established ISO 20022 messaging, compliance processes and settlement arrangements.
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