SWIFT, the global cooperative that underpins much of the world’s financial messaging infrastructure, is a neutral and trusted backbone of international finance. With over 11,000 members across more than 200 countries, SWIFT plays a critical role in enabling secure, reliable cross-border transactions. As central banks worldwide increasingly explore Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) to modernize payments, SWIFT sought to evaluate how these new forms of money could operate within – and across- national boundaries, without disrupting the global financial system.
CBDCs, or Central Bank Digital Currencies, are digital forms of a country’s official currency issued directly by central banks. Unlike cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, CBDCs are backed by a government and function as legal tender. They are designed to offer the safety and reliability of central bank money in a digital format, potentially enabling faster, more inclusive, and more efficient payments. Central banks see CBDCs as a way to future-proof monetary systems in the face of declining cash usage, growing demand for digital payments, and the rise of private digital currencies.
The challenge SWIFT faced was clear: while CBDCs offer potential for innovation in areas such as retail payments and financial inclusion, their fragmented implementation and diverse technology stacks created serious interoperability hurdles – especially for cross-border use. Without a common standard or coordination layer, CBDCs risked forming isolated “digital islands: making international payments more complex rather than less. SWIFT aimed to explore how it could maintain its critical role as an orchestrator of secure, seamless value exchange in this new digital landscape.
As lead architect for this initiative, I designed and built a series of experiments focused on CBDC interoperability. These included orchestrating transactions between DLT and traditional payment networks, and even between different DLT platforms such as Gorda and Quorum. The technical approach used innovative mechanisms like hashed time-lock contracts (HTLCs) to ensure secure, atomic cross-network settlements without intermediaries taking custody of funds. These experiments demonstrated SWIFTS ability to manage CBDC flows, validate transactions, and maintain compliance across jurisdictions —preserving trust and reducing systemic risk.
This groundbreaking work positions SWIFT to support central banks regardless of their chosen technology model — account-based or token-based — and ensures continuity of global payment flows in a future that includes CBDCs. For Software Designs, this case study reflects our expertise at the intersection of emerging technologies, financial infrastructure, and large-scale architecture. It underscores our ability to deliver forward-looking, pragmatic solutions that bridge innovation with the realities of global finance.
