Digital Digest: The Latest Tech News

The latest technology news in the wealth management sector from around the world.

Deutsche Bank's tech provider has opened access to Swift's blockchain ledger. Taurus, a Swiss-based specialist in digital asset infrastructure which runs in production at more than 40 banks including Deutsche Bank and State Street, is enabling financial institutions to connect to Swift’s blockchain-based shared ledger, with the first live clients who are expected in a couple of days.

The first DLT transactions facilitated through Taurus are expected in a couple of weeks and will be announced in due course, the firm said in a statement.

Taurus has completed connectivity with Swift’s DLT infrastructure and the integration of Swift smart contracts with its tokenisation (Taurus-CAPITAL) and custody (Taurus-PROTECT) solutions on clients’ permissioned blockchain infrastructure. For Taurus’ existing clients, this connectivity builds on the digital asset infrastructure they already use to custody, issue, and manage digital assets and can be set up in a matter of days. It extends those capabilities to bank-issued tokenised money and 24/7 cross-border payment use cases.

Taurus’ integration with Swift’s ledger is also intended for members of the Swift community that require an enterprise-grade tokenisation solution and wallet management capabilities, or that want to enter the space without prior experience.

Swift’s ledger provides a secure orchestration layer for 24/7 cross-border payments using tokenised deposits that remain on banks’ balance sheets, thus preserving the benefits of commercial bank money, the firm continued. Bank-issued tokenised deposits remain on the banks’ own ledgers, while Swift’s ledger coordinates the movement of funds between participating institutions, including overnight and on weekends.

The orchestration takes place before final settlement. Swift’s ledger does not change Swift’s role as a global financial messaging network, and final settlement will continue through agreed mechanisms, such as real-time gross settlement systems. Banks can therefore extend payment availability without replacing their existing settlement arrangements.

“Financial institutions need digital asset infrastructure that can connect securely with the systems and networks they already use,” Lamine Brahimi, co-founder and managing partner at Taurus, said. “By enabling seamless connectivity to Swift’s blockchain-based shared ledger, Taurus is helping banks extend their digital asset capabilities to tokenised deposits and cross-border payments while retaining control of their own infrastructure.”

Swift announced its blockchain-based shared ledger at Sibos 2025. Designed in collaboration with more than 40 financial institutions from around the world, it went from concept to activation within nine months. Seventeen first-mover financial institutions are putting the ledger to first use by piloting tokenised deposit transactions for various use cases. These include ANZ, BNP Paribas, BNY, Citi, DBS, First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), FirstRand Bank Limited, HSBC, Itaú Unibanco, Lloyds Bank, Mashreq, MUFG Bank, Overseas-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC), Standard Chartered, UBS, UOB, and Wells Fargo. Swift connects more than 11,500 financial institutions and corporates across more than 200 markets.