At SIBOS 2025, Chainlink unveiled a pioneering technological solution aimed at revolutionizing how financial institutions manage digital asset operations. By leveraging SWIFT messaging and the Chainlink Runtime Environment (CRE), this innovation provides global banks with a seamless pathway to interface with blockchains using infrastructure they have depended on for decades.
The new system allows financial institutions to execute tokenized fund subscription and redemption processes via ISO 20022 messages from their existing operational frameworks. This development is expected to address a significant technical barrier that has hindered the broader adoption of digital assets in international capital markets.
During the announcement, Chainlink detailed its collaborative efforts with UBS Tokenize, which marks the first application of this solution following previous engagements with the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Sergey Nazarov, co-founder of Chainlink, highlighted that the integration allows banks to interact with tokenized investment funds without needing to overhaul existing legacy systems or create new identity and key management structures. According to Nazarov, the CRE is designed to facilitate ISO 20022-compliant SWIFT messages that trigger smart contract events in the Oracle protocol’s Digital Transfer Agent (DTA) technical standard.
“I’m very excited about this landmark innovation we’ve achieved by leveraging Swift’s standards and UBS’ tokenized asset design,” Nazarov stated, emphasizing the innovations in product life cycles made possible by smart contract technologies.
The integration promises to significantly streamline complex on-chain workflows via SWIFT messaging, thereby minimizing operational friction and enhancing efficiency in financial operations. Chainlink positions this integration as a “plug-and-play” solution with the potential to unlock significant value in the $100 trillion global financial industry.
Swift’s financial messaging services, crucial to the global financial ecosystem, connect over 11,000 institutions across more than 200 countries, facilitating trillions of dollars in cross-border payments.
In addition to the new solution, Chainlink also announced the successful completion of the second phase of a blockchain and AI-driven pilot project for processing corporate actions. This initiative coordinated various large language models, including OpenAI’s GPT and Google’s Gemini, to produce structured, ISO 20022-compliant documents, transmitted through the SWIFT network. Notable participants in this collaborative effort include DTCC, Euroclear, and major banks like UBS, DBS, and BNP Paribas.
At the previous SIBOS 2016, Nazarov showcased an automated contract-based solution for handling ISO 20022-compliant bond instruments in the post-trade securities lifecycle. More recently, in collaboration with the Monetary Authority of Singapore and UBS Asset Management, Chainlink successfully demonstrated the automation of fund management operations and transfer agency processes, highlighting the potential for enhanced operational capabilities.
In a related note, Visa disclosed a report indicating that Chainlink and ANZ Bank are participants in the second stage of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s e-HKD pilot program. The report detailed the use of a Payment-vs-Payment settlement workflow with an Australian stablecoin, highlighting the project’s commitment to cross-chain connectivity and compliance verification.
As this narrative continues, Jonathan Ehrenfeld Solé, Head of Strategy at SWIFT, remarked on the nascent partnership saying, “That was maybe the first steps of this sort of love story between Swift and Chainlink, which continues today.”
Nazarov’s insights from SIBOS 2024 regarding a pre-production solution for blockchain connectivity via SWIFT messaging standards have laid the groundwork for this ongoing collaboration, representing a significant stride toward integrating traditional financial systems with blockchain technology.
