SWIFT—the network banks use to send most cross-border payment instructions—is piloting a blockchain-based payments platform for digital assets. Developed with Consensys, the pilot is designed to use smart contracts, connect with legacy rails, and enable 24/7 cross-border payments. With the GENIUS Act clearing space for U.S. banks to use stablecoins, KPMG’s Eamonn Maguire, a managing director in the customer and operations financial services practice, and Brian Consolvo, a principal in the advisory practice, told ProSight in an interview that bank leaders now need to decide where this fits in their payment strategy.
Who moves first—and how?
Maguire and Consolvo expect large international banks that already facilitate significant SWIFT traffic to be the earliest adopters, with the new platform starting out as “an add-on” to existing cross-border processes rather than a wholesale replacement, even as other tokenized payment options continue to evolve. For regional banks, they suggest starting with a limited cross-border payments pilot, with a year-one definition of success focused on lowering consumer costs and achieving near-instant, 24/7 settlement.
Biggest hurdle: understanding the rail before you use it.
The KPMG team frames education as the primary adoption barrier—both how the technology works and how it fits into the current payment ecosystem. Across stakeholder groups, banks will need a solid handle on blockchain-specific risks, including private-key management, transaction monitoring, and KYC/AML. Maguire and Consolvo outline a three-stage path:
- Assess how SWIFT’s new platform affects legacy messaging, existing payment flows, and the bank’s future role amid emerging alternatives.
- As the platform matures, run parallel transaction messaging on alternative or legacy rails to validate results and test SWIFT-related controls.
- Move toward an “open, yet controlled, architecture” backed by rigorously tested controls before scaling up.
Setting expectations—with clients and internally.
For corporates, Maguire and Consolvo say the story should be faster cross-border payments with “settlement times similar to stablecoin payments,” and lower costs than today’s SWIFT processes, though SWIFT may still face pricing pressure from newer players. Strategically, originating and receiving banks are likely to welcome these changes, but some intermediaries risk being cut out and will need to re-evaluate whether to “exit or stay the course.”
Not ready to pilot? Their advice: join as an observer, map the alternatives in the market, and reassess your payments proposition and business case this quarter.
