Taurus co-founder says banks need internal infrastructure to use Swift’s blockchain ledger

Swift’s new blockchain-based ledger for tokenized deposits is live, but banks still need to build their own digital-asset plumbing before they can plug into it, according to Taurus co-founder Lamine Brahimi. The warning matters for any bank weighing whether round-the-clock, cross-border settlement is now within reach or still years of internal engineering away.

• Banks need a permissioned ledger, digital-asset wallets, and tokenization and smart-contract tools to connect, Brahimi says.
• Swift’s ledger moves tokenized deposits across borders 24/7 but functions as an orchestration layer, not a settlement replacement.
• HSBC, Standard Chartered, DBS and Citi have already completed live transactions, including a weekend payment settled in minutes.

• 17 banks preparing live tokenized-deposit transactions, per Swift’s July statement
• $1.5Q in annual Swift money transfers, a system dominant since the 1970s
• August HSBC and Standard Chartered’s first live interbank transaction on the ledger
• 2 days prior settlement window DBS and Citi cut to minutes

Swift, the messaging network that underpins most of the world’s bank-to-bank transfers, has begun rolling out a blockchain-based ledger meant to let tokenized bank deposits move across borders at any hour. According to reporting by CoinDesk, Taurus co-founder and managing partner Lamine Brahimi says the ledger is ready for live payments but is not a standalone fix for banks lacking the right internal infrastructure. Brahimi’s firm, which builds custody and tokenization software for financial institutions, recently built its own connection into the Swift system.

Three layers banks need before they can connect

Brahimi laid out a specific checklist for any institution hoping to use Swift’s ledger. Banks need a permissioned ledger that can interact with Swift’s own, digital-asset wallet capabilities, and tokenization and smart-contract tools to integrate with Swift’s smart contracts.

“If you want to connect today to the Swift ledger, you need three things. You need your own permissioned ledger that interacts with that of Swift, you need wallet capabilities, and you also need tokenization and smart-contract capabilities to be able to integrate the Swift smart contracts.”

Lamine Brahimi, co-founder and managing partner, Taurus

That requirement means the ledger does not replace a bank’s internal systems. It sits as an orchestration layer, moving tokenized deposits across borders while final settlement still runs through existing arrangements.

HSBC, Standard Chartered, DBS and Citi already running live payments

Swift said in July that 17 banks were preparing live tokenized-deposit transactions, an early signal of its first real attempt to modernize a bank-messaging network that has dominated global finance since the 1970s and still routes up to $1.5 quadrillion a year. HSBC and Standard Chartered completed the first live interbank transaction on the ledger in August.

DBS and Citi later executed a weekend cross-border dollar payment that settled in minutes, work that previously took up to two business days. Brahimi called the extra infrastructure requirement a design choice rather than a flaw, noting it should not hold Swift back from continuing to dominate its sector.

“I think it’s a good move,” Brahimi said. “That provides the choice.” He argued the setup gives banks the option to keep using existing payment rails or shift to tokenized deposits that move around the clock, without forcing a wholesale rebuild of their systems.

Taurus bets a single platform beats a multi-vendor build

Taurus announced its Swift integration in August, according to a company blog post, and Brahimi says the firm packages all three required layers, permissioned ledger, wallet management, and tokenization and smart-contract software, into one platform. He said competing vendors may require banks to stitch together multiple products to meet the same requirements.

Brahimi tied the infrastructure barrier to why tokenized deposits have stayed a largely institutional product. “Tokenized deposits until Swift’s announcement were barely used,” he said. “They were mostly used by huge banks like JPMorgan, because they had such a big global scale.”

Swift’s model keeps deposits on banks’ own balance sheets, a structural difference from stablecoins issued outside the banking system. That distinction, combined with the layered connection requirements Brahimi describes, keeps the ledger oriented toward large institutions for now rather than opening tokenized settlement to smaller banks or non-bank players.

The BlockWest read. The real gatekeeper here is not Swift’s ledger but which vendors banks pick to build the three layers Brahimi describes. Taurus is positioning itself as a single-platform alternative while rivals push multi-vendor stacks, meaning the next competitive battle in tokenized deposits plays out among infrastructure providers, not among the banks themselves.

Swift has not disclosed a timeline for when the remaining banks among the 17 it named in July will move from testing to live transactions, leaving open how quickly tokenized-deposit settlement spreads beyond HSBC, Standard Chartered, DBS and Citi.

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