Swift gears up for innovation around digital currencies

Central banks have the high costs and slow speed of many cross-border payments firmly in their sights. They believe that embracing new technologies, such as instant payment systems and international bridges between national central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), could offer ways to speed up payments and reduce costs.

Such innovation could result in the disintermediation of some of the 11,000 worldwide members of leading payments messaging service provider Swift. But Swift itself is also